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CHRIST  AND  THE 
EASTERN  SOUL 


THE  WITNESS  OF  THE  ORIENTAL   CONSCIOUSNESS 
TO  JESUS  CHRIST 


BY 

CHARLES  CUTHBERT  HALL,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Late  President  of  the   Union   Theological  Seminary^ 
New    Tork 


THE  BARROWS  LECTURES 
1906-1907 


CHICAGO 
THE    UNIVERSITY   OF    CHICAGO    PRESS 

LONDON 
T.   FISHER  UNWIN,   i  ADELPHI  TERRACE 

1909 


GENERAL 


Copyright  1909  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 


Publishedj]April  1909 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.  S.  A. 


CCL^ 


TO 

THOUGHTFUL    INDIANS    OF    ALL    FAITHS 

THESE    LECTURES 

ARE    DEDICATED    RESPECTFULLY 

BY 

A    CITIZEN    OF    THE    WEST 

WHO    BELIEVES    IN    THE    UNITY    OF    THE 

HUMAN    RACE 

AND  WHO  LOOKS 

WITH    REVERENCE    ON    THE    INDIA    OF    THE    PAST 

WITH    AFFECTION    ON    THE    INDIA    OF    THE    PRESENT 

AND    WITH    ARDENT    EXPECTATION 

ON 

THE    INDIA    OF    THE    FUTURE 


180779 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Barrows  Lectureship  Foundation     -        -        -        ix 
Preface  _-__-_-..      xiii 

By  the  President  of  the  University  of  Chicago 

Introductory  Note       -------      xvii 

By  the  Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands 

Syllabus         ---------      xxv 

LECTURE  I 

Elements  of  Sublimity  in  the  Oriental  Conscious- 
ness        ---------         I 

LECTURE  II 
The  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion    -        32 

LECTURE  III 
The  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul         -       -       -       -       63 

LECTURE  IV 
The  Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God         -        -        -        -        97 

LECTURE  V 
The  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian 

Religion  -        -        - 133 

LECTURE  VI 
The  Ministry  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  in  a 

World-wide  Kingdom  of  Christ  -        -       -       -      171 


^i 


/  f>r  THE  ^ 

f    MNIVERSITrf I 


THE  BARROWS  LECTURESHIP  FOUNDATION 

The  Barrows  Lectureship  was  established  in  1894 
by  Mrs.  Caroline  E.  Haskell.  The  first  course  of  lec- 
tures was  delivered  during  the  winter  of  1896-189  7  by 
Dr.  John  Henry  Barrows,  in  whose  honor  the  lectureship 
was  named.  Dr.  Barrows  gave  one  or  more  lectures  in 
each  of  the  following  cities :  Calcutta,  Lucknow,  Cawn- 
pore,  Delhi,  Lahore,  Amritsar,  Agra,  Jeypore,  Ajmere, 
Indore,  Ahmednagar,  Poona,  Bangalore,  Vellore,  Mad- 
ras, Madura,  Palamcotta,  Tinnevelly,  and  Colombo. 
This  course  of  lectures  has  been  published  under  the 
title,  "Christianity,  the  World  Religion.''  The  second 
course  of  Barrows  Lectures  was  delivered  in  Calcutta, 
and  elsewhere  in  India,  by  Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  Prin- 
cipal of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  during  the  winter 
of  1 898-1 899.  This  course  of  lectures  has  not  been 
published.  The  third  course  was  delivered  in  India, 
Ceylon,  and  Japan,  by  Dr.  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall, 
during  the  winter  of  1 902-1 903,  and  has  been  published 
under  the  title,  "Christian  Belief  Interpreted  by  Chris- 
tian Experience." 

The  letter  of  Mrs.  Haskell  to  President  Harper,  in 
which  she  proposes  to  establish  this  lectureship  in  the 
University  of  Chicago,  is  as  follows: 

Chicago^  October  12^  1894 
President  William  R.  Harper: 

My  dear  Sir:  I  take  pleasure  in  offering  to  the  University  of 
Chicago  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  the  founding  of  a 


X         THE  BARROWS  LECTURESHIP  FOUNDATION 

second  Lectureship  on  the  Relations  of  Christianity  and  the  Other 
Religions.  These  lectures^  six  or  more  in  number,  are  to  he  given  in 
Calcutta  {India),  and,  if  deemed  best,  in  Bombay,  Madras,  or  some 
other  of  the  chief  cities  of  Hindustan,  where  large  numbers  of  the 
educated  Hindus  are  familiar  with  the  English  language.  The 
wish,  so  earnestly  expressed  by  Mr.  P.  C.  Mozoomdar,  that  a  lecture- 
ship, like  that  which  I  had  the  privilege  of  founding  last  summer, 
might  be  provided  for  India,  has  led  me  to  consider  the  desirability 
of  establishing  in  some  great  collegiate  center,  like  Calcutta,  a  course 
of  lectures  to  be  given,  either  annually  or,  as  may  seem  better,  bien- 
nially, by  leading  Christian  scholars  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  America, 
in  which,  in  a  friendly,  temperate,  and  conciliatory  way,  and  in  the 
fraternal  spirit  which  pervaded  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  the 
great  questions  of  the  truths  of  Christianity,  its  harmonies  with  the 
truths  of  other  religions,  its  rightful  claims  and  the  best  methods  of 
setting  them  forth,  should  be  presented  to  the  scholarly  and  thoughtful 
people  of  India. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  identify  this  work,  which,  I  believe,  will  be  a 
work  of  enlightenment  and  fraternity,  with  the  University  Extension 
Department  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  it  is  my  desire  that 
the  management  of  this  Lectureship  should  lie  with  yourself,  as 
President  of  all  the  Departments  of  the  University;  with  Rev.  John 
Henry  Barrows,  D.D.,  the  Professorial  Lecturer  on  Comparative 
Religion;  with  Professor  George  S.  Goods  peed,  the  Associate  Pro- 
fessor of  Comparative  Religion;  and  with  those  who  shall  be  your 
and  their  successors  in  these  positions.  It  is  my  request  that  this 
Lectureship  shall  bear  the  name  of  John  Henry  Barrows,  who  has 
identified  himself  with  the  work  of  promoting  friendly  relations 
between  Christian  America  and  the  people  of  India.  The  committee 
having  the  management  of  these  lectures  shall  also  have  the  authority 
to  determine  whether  any  of  the  courses  shall  be  given  in  Asiatic  or 
other  cities  outside  of  India. 

In  reading  the  proceedings  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  I 
have  been  struck  with  the  many  points  of  harmony  between  the 
different  faiths,  and  by  the  possibility  of  so  presenting  Christianity 
to  others  as  to  win  their  favorable  interest  in  its  truths.    If  the 


THE  BARROWS  LECTURESHIP  FOUNDATION        xi 

committee  shall  decide  to  utilize  this  Lectureship  still  further  in 
calling  forth  the  views  of  scholarly  representatives  of  non-Christian 
^aiths,  I  authorize  and  shall  approve  such  a  decision.     Only  good 

will  grow  out  of  such  a  comparison  of  views 

//  is  my  wish  that,  accepting  the  offer  I  now  make,  the  committee 
of  the  University  will  correspond  with  the  leaders  of  religious 
thought  in  India,  and  secure  from  them  such  helpful  suggestions  as 
they  may  readily  give.  I  cherish  the  expectation  that  the  Barrows 
Lectures  will  prove,  in  the  years  that  shall  come,  a  new  golden  bond 
between  the  East  and  West.  In  the  belief  that  this  foundation  will  be 
blessed  by  our  heavenly  Father  to  the  extension  of  the  benign  influence 
of  our  great  University,  to  the  promotion  of  the  highest  interests  of 
humanity,  and  to  the  enlargement  of  the  Kingdom  of  Truth  and 
Love  on  earth,  I  remain,  with  much  regard. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Carolina  E.  Haskell 


In  conformity  with  this  letter  of  gift,  the  following 
principles  and  regulations  governing  the  Barrows  Lec- 
tureship have  been  established : 

1.  A  Committee,  consisting  of  the  President  of  the  University 
of  Chicago  and  the  Professor  of  Comparative  Religion,  is  entrusted 
with  the  management  of  the  Lectureship. 

2.  Nominations  to  the  Lectureship  are  made  by  the  Committee 
and  confirmed  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University. 

3.  The  Lecturer  holds  ofl&ce  for  two  years,  during  which  period 
he  is  expected  to  deliver  the  series  of  lectures  in  a  place  or  places 
agreed  upon  between  himself  and  the  Committee. 

4.  During  his  term  of  office,  or  in  the  year  following  its  expira- 
tion, the  Lecturer  is  expected  to  publish  his  lectures,  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press,  in  the  series  known  as  ''The  Barrows 
Lectures,"  and  to  deposit  two  copies  of  the  same  with  the  Librarian 
of  the  University  of  Chicago,  one  of  which  is  to  be  placed  in  the 


xii       THE  BARROWS  LECTURESHIP  FOUNDATION 

General  Library  of  the  University,  the  other  in  the  Departmental 
Library  of  Comparative  Religion. 

5.  The  Committee  is  empowered  to  add  to  these  regulations 
any  others  which  shall  be  in  harmony  with  the  terms  or  spirit  of 
the  Letter  of  Gift. 


PREFACE  — 

Mrs.  Haskell's  idea  in  founding  the  Barrows  Lec- 
tures in  India  was  a  noble  one.  With  broad  catholicity 
of  spirit  she  recognised  the  essential  truth  which  is 
common  to  all  forms  of  religious  thought,  and  realised 
that  men  are  prone  to  quarrel  about  diversities  rather 
than  to  rejoice  in  the  elements  of  unity.  With  this  view 
it  seemed  to  her  that  the  essential  Christian  doctrines 
might  well  be  presented  to  the  acute  Eastern  mind  in  so 
unpolemic  and  yet  cogent  a  form  as  to  win  appreciation 
of  their  beauty  and  power  far  more  than  is  possible  from 
the  customary  preaching  of  the  gospel.  The  Indian  is 
not  a  heathen,  but  is  a  man  of  deep  religious  life  and 
profound  philosophy.  He  is  worthy  to  be  approached 
by  a  similar  mind. 

The  first  course  in  India  was  given  by  the  Rev.  John 
Henry  Barrows,  D.D.,  in  the  winter  of  1896-97,  on  the 
subject, ''  Christianity,  the  World  Religion."  The  Rev. 
Dr.  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  principal  of  Mansfield  College, 
Oxford,  gave  the  second  course  in  the  winter  of  1898- 
99.  The  title  was  "Religion  and  the  Philosophy  of 
Religion." 

On  June  29,  1899,  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
University  of  Chicago  appointed  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles 
Cuthbert  Hall  as  Barrows  Lecturer.  The  intention  at 
that  time  was  for  his  visit  to  India  to  be  made  in  the 
autumn  of  190 1.  It  was  postponed  for  a  year,  how- 
ever, and  accordingly  in  the  winter  of  1902-3  the  third 


XIV  BARROWS  LECTURES 

course  was  delivered,  "Christian  Belief  Interpreted  by 
Christian  Experience."  So  deep  an  impression  was 
made  by  these  lectures  that  it  was  obviously  wise  for 
Dr.  Hall  to  make  a  second  visit  to  the  East  and  to  give 
the  fourth  course  on  the  Barrows  Foundation.  On 
July  19,  1904,  he  was  reappointed  to  the  Barrows 
Lectureship,  and  this  course,  "Christ  and  the  Eastern 
Soul,"  was  given  in  the  cities  of  India  in  the  winter  of 
1906-7.  The  cities  in  which  the  series  was  delivered 
in  full  were  Lahore,  Allahabad,  Calcutta,  Madras, 
Bombay,  and  Bangalore.  Individual  lectures  of  the 
course  were  given  in  Simla,  Lucknow,  Benares,  Dhar- 
mar,  Ahmednagar,  Hyderabad,  and  Ernakulam.  Some 
were  given  in  Ceylon  and  Manila,  and  a  few  in  Japan. 
In  the  closing  days  of  the  Autumn  Quarter,  December 
10-15,  1907?  the  lectures  were  repeated  at  the  Univer- 
sity, in  accordance  with  the  plan  of  the  donor,  and  Dr. 
Hall  closed  his  services  to  the  University  of  Chicago 
with  the  Convocation  sermon  on  Sunday,  December  15, 
1907.     In  1908  he  passed  away  from  this  life. 

This  is  the  bald  record  of  facts  connected  with  the 
final  great  work  of  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  our  religious 
leaders.  His  was  a  rare  soul.  One  who  was  associated 
with  him  in  college  life  and  knew  in  those  early  years 
his  sterling  character  and  his  rich  promise  finds  it  not 
easy  to  pause  here.  But  his  own  words  will  speak  of 
him  more  eloquently  than  any  that  others  can  find. 

It  should  be  stated  that  owing  to  the  condition  of  his 
health  Dr.  Hall  was  unable  in  person  to  complete  the 
preparation  of  the  manuscript  for  the  press,  and  that  at 
his  request  this  work  was  performed  by  Mr.  Robert 


PREFACE  x\ 

Russell  Wicks,  who  accompanied  him  on  his  second 
journey,  and  by  his  son,  Basil  Douglas  Hall.  For  the 
above  reasons  the  notes  doubtless  are  not  so  complete 
as  the  author  would  have  wished.  The  employment  of 
English  orthographical  forms,  it  may  be  added,  is 
accordance  with  Dr.  Hall's  wishes. 

Harry  Pratt  Judson 

The  University  of  Chicago 
November,  1908 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

"Like  a  bridge  over  a  mountain  torrent  he  joined 
two  precipices,  and  the  stream  of  controversy  passed 
beneath  him" — such  is  the  epitaph  I  would  inscribe  over 
the  life  of  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall.  The  accumulated 
knowledge  of  an  earnest  student,  the  profundity  of  a 
refined  character,  and  the  noble  piety  of  a  Christian 
mystic  equipped  him  to  play  the  part,  which  he  fulfilled 
so  well,  of  ambassador,  interpreter,  friend  from  the 
Western  to  the  Eastern  world.  The  God-designed  one- 
ness of  the  human  race  was  to  him  no  idle  theory  or 
doubtful  speculation;  it  was  a  guiding  principle  for 
practical  activity  through  a  lifetime.  With  the  courage 
of  deathless  conviction,  he  chose  the  widest  chasm  that 
breaks  the  unity  of  mankind  and  divides  the  world  into 
two  sharply  contrasted  sections  of  East  and  West,  upon 
which  to  spend  the  constructive  force  of  his  manhood 
at  its  zenith,  laying  down  his  life  for  his  espoused  cause 
as  willingly  and  as  truly  as  a  Livingstone  or  a  Patteson. 

It  was  the  balance  of  the  man  added  to  his  passion 
that  made  him  singular  and  won  him  our  love.  In  his 
missionary  zeal  to  contribute  to  the  Orient  the  greatest 
blessing  held  in  trust  for  the  world  by  the  West,  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  did  not  underestimate  the 
treasures  that  lie  hidden  in  the  Oriental  Consciousness, 
for  lack  of  a  share  in  which  we  of  the  West,  with  all  our 
vaunted  wealth,  are  but  poor.  "The  world,  blinded  by 
material  objects  and  hardened  by  self-centred  motives, 


xviii  BARROWS  LECTURES 

needs  a  fresh  interpretation  of  Christ  from  some  human 
source  where  faith  in  the  Invisible  is  still  the  great  Real- 
ity, and  interest  in  the  ultimate  problems  of  the  soul, 
still  an  unspent  river  of  delight."  For  this  needed  in- 
terpretation he  looked  to  the  contemplative,  mystical 
countries  of  the  Far  East,  and  especially  to  India, 
mother  of  great  religions. 

Four  years  ago  Dr.  Hall,  in  anticipation  of  his  second 
visit  to  the  Orient,  with  characteristic  generosity  tem- 
pered by  humility,  asked  permission  to  render  us  some 
service  when  he  came  to  the  Philippines.  His  advent 
thither  was  like  the  inflowing  of  a  cool  breeze  from  the 
sea  on  a  sultry  day.  He  was  fresh  from  his  last  experi- 
ence as  Barrows  Lecturer  when,  in  February  of  1907, 
he  delivered,  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Mary  and  St.  John 
in  the  city  of  Manila,  a  series  of  lectures  which  were  a 
golden  echo  of  those  just  concluded  in  India.  A  man 
of  his  depth  of  character  and  Christian  experience  could 
have  but  one  theme,  the  theme  of  every  mature  follower 
of  the  Saviour  from  St.  Paul  to  Gregory  the  Great  and 
from  Gregory  the  Great  to  Mackay  and  Judson  and 
Hannington — Christ  for  mankind  and  mankind  for 
Christ. 

In  our  many  conversations  during  his  visit,  he  dis- 
coursed with  enthusiasm  on  the  intelligent  and  appre- 
ciative hearing  given  him  in  India  by  the  cultured 
natives.  He  vehemently  protested  against  the  theory 
that  the  evangelisation  of  the  educated  Indian,  because 
of  his  intellectual  pride,  was  hopeless,  and  that  Chris- 
tianity's sole  opportunity  lay  among  the  low-caste  poor 
and  the  pariahs.     Justly  he  maintained  that  *'the  finite 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE  xix 


mind  "  was  "  the  most  glorious  of  all  God's  productions  ;*' 
and  the  reverent  attention  meted  out  to  his  sympathetic 
but  uncompromising  presentation  of  Christian  truth 
among  scholarly  devotees  of  leading  Eastern  cults  dur- 
ing both  his  visits  to  the  Orient  demonstrated  anew 
that  all  knowledge  is  an  avenue  for  the  triumphal  entry 
of  the  Word  of  God  into  the  human  soul. 

Dr.  Hall  was  no  stranger  to  the  sacred  lore  of  the  East. 
Without  unduly  accentuating  its  merits  or  detracting 
from  its  glories,  he  aimed  to  put  it  into  normal  relation 
to  the  Truth  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  knew, 
and  his  poetic  soul  valued,  "the  magnificent  Vedic 
hymns;"  he  was  conversant  with  the  profound  philos- 
ophy of  the  Upanishads;  he  was  quick  to  discover 
Logos  teaching  in  the  Maha  Bharata.  Christianity,  the 
fulfilling  religion,  was  the  burden  of  his  song.  "The 
truth  that  is  in  your  several  faiths  cannot  be  shaken  by 
your  assimilation  of  the  faith  of  Christ.  Truth  never 
casts  out  truth,  it  casts  out  only  error  and  whatsoever 
else  has  served  its  purpose  fully  and  is  ready  to  depart." 
Every  lesser  truth  which  the  gospel  touches  is  thereby 
not  destroyed  but  transfigured  and  given  new  life  and 
power — a  fact  to  which  the  modern  missionary  must 
respond  by  studying  the  religions  which  surround  him, 
until  his  consciousness  is  as  fully  saturated  by  their 
merits  as  the  consciousness  of  the  early  Christians  was 
saturated  by  the  truths  of  the  Old  Testament.  If  we 
find  in  Oriental  scriptures  much  that  is  repellant  and 
ethically  incomplete,  it  is  no  more  than  we  find  in  the 
polygamies,  the  deceits,  the  cruelties  of  our  own  Old 
Testament.     The  Old  Testament,  without  the  interpre- 


XX  BARROWS  LECTURES 

tive  and  refining  influence  of  the  New,  would  be  a  poor 
guide  to  life.  The  relation  which  the  New  Testament 
bears  to  the  Old  is  representative  of  what  it  is  capable 
of  being  to  the  scriptures  of  the  Orient.  The  road  to 
Christianity  for  the  adherents  of  great  pre-Christian 
religions  is  not  through  the  laborious  route  of  Old  Testa- 
ment thought,  but  through  their  own  beliefs  straight 
into  the  gospel.  I  once  suggested  to  an  eminent  scien- 
tist and  mystic  that  it  might  be  well  for  Christian  hands 
to  bind  up  representative  Oriental  scriptures  with  the 
New  Testament.  He  replied  that  the  association  of  the 
Jewish  scriptures  with  the  Christian  writings  had  not 
been  a  converting  factor  among  the  Jews.  That  is  true. 
But  it  has  had  the  effect  of  giving  to  the  world  the  real 
wealth  of  the  Old  Testament;  and  the  wealth  of  the 
Oriental  religious  mind  will  come  to  us  only  when  its 
product  is  studied  appreciatively  in  the  light  of  the  gospel. 
We  need  this  wealth  and  we  shall  only  half  know  the 
meaning  and  the  power  of  the  Incarnation,  let  alone 
equip  ourselves  for  the  evangelisation  of  the  Orient, 
until  we  have  made  it  our  very  own,  as  we  desire  the 
Oriental  to  make  our  Scriptures  his  very  own. 

Those  of  us  who  have  made  a  close  study  of  Eastern 
life  agree  with  Dr.  Hall's  contention  that  it  is  both  im- 
pertinent and  harmful  to  impose  upon  the  Oriental 
world  the  exact  reproduction  of  our  Western  institutions, 
either  in  government  or  religion.  An  ardent  patriot 
himself,  he  reverenced  the  glimmerings  of  patriotism  in 
men  of  other  races,  and  deprecated  any  slight  offered  to 
natives  by  foreign  officials.  As  to  the  Western  embodi- 
ment of  Christianity  he  says : 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE  xxi 

Next  to  the  ethical  misrepresentation  of  the  Christian  religion 
by  the  perverse  and  contradictory  lives  of  its  nominal  adherents, 
I  know  of  nothing  more  likely  to  repel  Orientals  from  the  sympa- 
thetic study  of  this  Eastern  faith  [Christianity]  than  the  over- 
shadowing prominence  of  ecclesiastical  institutions.  That  these 
institutions  are  inseparable  from  the  Occidental  practise  of  Chris- 
tianity, history  appears  to  show.  That  they  have  their  excellent 
uses,  in  their  own  sphere,  it  would  be  but  questionable  wisdom  to 
deny. 

But  we  must  learn  to  distinguish  between  the  essential 
and  the  incidental  in  Christian  institutionalism,  afford- 
ing Oriental  Christianity  free  scope  to  shape  itself. 
This  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  doing.  There  must 
be  a  season  of  patience  in  our  labours  for  Christ  in  the 
Orient,  during  which  the  Christian  missionary  will  have 
to  be  content  to  teach  and  work  exactly  as  his  Master 
taught  and  worked,  without  regard  for  exact  results, 
manifest  conversions,  dignified  organisations,  and  grati- 
fying statistics.  Then  in  God's  good  time  the  Oriental 
church  will  rear  its  walls  suitably  to  its  environment. 
Like  the  West  it  is  bound  to  have  its  heresies  and  schisms. 
Though  their  racial  coherence  makes  the  Orientals  less 
prone  to  divisions  than  ourselves,  we  have  educated 
them  to  look  for  a  broken  Christendom  from  the  first. 
The  evils  we  can  perhaps  undo  in  a  measure,  mitigating 
in  their  case  the  fury,  the  bitterness,  the  hatred  of  our 
own  history,  if  we  hush  our  sectarian  cries  and  work 
constructively  and  lovingly  for  the  advancement  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  whether  here  or  yonder,  after  the 
example  of  His  faithful  servant,  Charles  Cuthbert  Hall, 
who,  having  finished  his  course,  now  rests  from  his 
labours. 


xxii  BARROWS  LECTURES 

The  hour  is  one  in  which  the  ends  of  the  earth  are 
rapidly  being  drawn  together.  Races  and  nations  are 
overflowing  their  bounds.  Exclusion  acts,  which  by 
the  right  of  might  we  of  the  West  erect  against  the 
Orient,  are  effective  only  for  a  moment  and  will  go 
down  as  the  corn  under  the  sickle  before  the  world  is 
much  older.  And  it  is  we,  who  are  barring  our  gates  to 
the  Oriental,  that  are  responsible  for  the  coming  flood — 
we  who  invaded  his  territory  to  exploit  him,  to  infect  him 
with  our  vices,  to  make  him  the  instrument  of  our  com- 
mercialism and  the  toy  of  our  pleasure.  He  has  as  true 
a  right  to  talk  about  the  "white"  as  we  the  "yellow" 
peril.  The  West  has  laid  ruthless  hands  upon  his 
traditions,  has  discounted  his  religions,  has  usurped  the 
right  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  yellow  "brother" 
and  the  brown,  has  dictated  to  him  the  course  he  must 
pursue,  has  compelled  him  to  accept  our  mode  of  educa- 
tion. If  we  now  complain  that  he  is  aspiring  to  democ- 
racy, that  he  expects  treatment  according  to  the  Golden 
Rule,  that  he  demands  place  among  the  nations  of  the 
world  with  freedom  to  travel  and  work  where  he  will, 
it  is  we  who  have  implanted  in  his  heart  aspiration  for 
national  life,  equal  treatment,  and  independent  status; 
it  is  we  who  have  afforded  him  access  to  our  inventions 
and  pressed  upon  him  what  we  are  pleased  to  call 
civilisation. 

The  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  the  East  is  going  to  over- 
flow its  banks  with  the  force  of  a  resistless  tide,  "florid 
with  blood,  pensive,  rapt  with  musings,  hot  with  pas- 
sion," and  our  children's  children  will  testify  to  the 
truth  of  the  prophecy  as  they  commend  or  condemn  us, 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE  xxiii 

their  forbears,  according  as  we  have  builded  well  or 
badly  in  preparation. 

The  day  of  this  happening,  though  it  cannot  be 
averted,  is  not  necessarily  to  be  lamented.  It  is  part" 
of  the  process  of  working  out  the  destiny  of  the  race 
as  a  family  of  one  common  humanity.  We  of  to-day 
are  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  making  ready  for 
it.  It  will  be  a  calamity  only  so  far  as  we  refuse  to  face 
the  certain  fact  and  to  seize  our  present  opportunity. 
The  situation  is  this:  East  and  West  are  pressing  one 
upon  the  other  with  the  proximity  of  neighbours  hav- 
ing adjacent  estates.  Already  Oriental  diseases  have  in- 
fected our  citizens,  and  Canada  and  the  United  States 
suddenly  awake  to  the  fact  that  they,  a^  well  as  China, 
have  an  opium  problem  of  imported  origin.  This  is 
sufficient  warning.  Unless  the  best  moral  and  spiritual 
ideals  of  the  West  prevail  over,  renew,  and  fulfil  the 
ideals  of  the  East,  the  decadent  ideas  of  the  East  are 
going  to  sweep  through  the  West  with  devastating  might. 
Eastern  cults  claim  to-day  among  their  votaries  thou- 
sands of  high-bred  Occidentals. 

Mere  self -protection  demands  prompt  and  aggressive 
action  on  our  part,  just  as  the  cleaning-up  of  an  infected 
city  is  a  defence  for  the  healthy  as  well  as  a  remedy  for  the 
sick.  But  we  must  bestir  ourselves  from  a  much  nobler 
motive.  We  have  reached  a  stage  where  the  honour  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  imperilled  as  perhaps  never  before. 
Unless  Christianity  rises  from  its  lethargic,  self-satisfied 
dreams  and  fulfils  its  common  duty  of  going  with  force 
and  a  united  front  to  its  task  of  world-wide  evangelisa- 
tion, according  to  the  distinct  command  of  its  Founder, 


XXIV  BARROWS  LECTURES 

it  is  going  to  become  more  and  more  effete,  until  when 
the  unconverted  ideals  of  the  Orient  at  last  envelope  the 
Christian  Church,  she  will  all  but  disappear. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  Christians  reinforce  the  little 
group  of  missionaries  now  at  work  in  far-off  fields  with 
the  flower  of  their  manhood  and  womanhood  until  it 
is  swollen  into  an  army,  we  can  look  forward,  not  only 
without  dismay  but  with  eagerness,  to  the  day  when 
the  life  of  East  and  West  will  blend  in  disciplined  and 
understanding  fellowship  under  the  leadership  of  Him 
who  alone  can  unify  and  harmonise  our  strangely 
diversified  and  richly  endowed  humanity.  Touched  by 
Christianity  the  ideals  and  religions  of  the  Orient  are 
a  contribution  to  the  Kingdom  of  Gqd;  unconverted 
and  unfulfilled  they  are  a  menace  to  the  very  life  of 
Christianity. 

Is  it  the  prophet's  thought  I  speak,  or  am  I  raving  ? 
What  do  I  know  of  Ufe  ?    What  of  myself  ? 
I  know  not  even  my  own  work  past  or  present, 
Dim  ever-shifting  guesses  of  it  spread  before  me, 
Of  newer  better  worlds,  their  mighty  parturition, 
Mocking,  perplexing  me. 

The  end  I  know  not,  it  is  all  in  Thee, 

Or  small  or  great  I  know  not — haply  what  broad  fields,  what  lands, 
Haply  the  brutish  measureless  human  undergrowth  I  know, 
Transplanted  there  may  rise  to  stature,  knowledge  worthy  Thee, 
Haply  the  swords  I  know  may  there  indeed  be  turned  to  reaping- 

tools, 
Haply  the  lifeless  cross  I  know,  Europe's  dead  cross,  may  bud  and 

blossom  there. 

Charles  H.  Brent 
Bishop  of  the  Philippine  Islands 


SYLLABUS 


LECTURE   I 

ELEMENTS     OF     SUBLIMITY     IN     THE     ORIENTAL     CONSCIOUSNESS 

Satisfaction  and  joy  of  the  lecturer  in  returning  to  India. 
Reference  to  his  former  course  of  Barrows  Lectures,  in  which  he 
attempted  to  separate  the  essence  of  the  Christian  religion  from 
accretions  occurring  in  the  West;  and  to  present  it  for  considera- 
tion upon  its  merits  as  intrinsically  applicable  to  human  conscious- 
ness. Reflection  upon  his  former  experience  in  India  suggests 
correspondences  between  the  Christian  religion  and  the  Oriental 
Consciousness.  Opportunity  afforded  by  the  second  appointment 
of  the  lecturer  to  express  in  India  the  results  of  this  reflection. 
Psychological  relation  of  Indian  personahty  to  the  most  lofty 
elements  of  the  Christian  religion. 
I.  Indication  of  three  lines  of  procedure,  to  be  followed  in  the 
present  course  of  lectures. 

First:  To  analyse  the  Oriental  Consciousness  from  the 
point  of  view  of  an  outside  observer  in  sympathy  with  his 
subject.  Attempts  to  analyse  Oriental  Consciousness  have 
been  made  by  those  not  in  full  sympathy  therewith.  The 
effort  of  the  lecturer  undertaken  reverently,  with  a  view  to 
exhibiting  the  presence  of  sublime  elements. 
Secondly:  To  unfold  certain  metaphysical  aspects  of  the 
Christian  religion  which  are  characteristic  of  it.  These 
aspects  frequently  hidden  by  forms  and  institutions,  which, 
while  useful,  must  be  discriminated  from  the  underlying 
things  of  the  Spirit. 

Thirdly:  To  exhibit  the  significance  for  the  world  of  this  cor- 
respondence between  the  sublime  elements  of  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness and  the  profoundly  mystical  aspects  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion. 


XXVI  BARROWS  LECTURES 

2.  The  subject  approached  in  no  spirit  of  flattery.  Analysis 
of  the  word  "flattery"  and  repudiation  of  its  spirit  by  the 
lecturer.  Neither  is  he  depreciating  the  qualities  of  Western 
civilisation,  of  which  some  account  is  given.  Qualifications  of 
remote  racial  inheritance  combined  with  sincere  love  for  India. 

3.  Study  of  the  common  nature  of  mankind  attractive  to  the  true 
citizen  of  the  world.  The  unity  of  the  human  world  an 
exhilarating  thought.  Temperamental  and  psychic  variations 
worked  out  on  a  world-scale. 

The  fact  of  race  consciousness  a  fundamental  fact  of  great 
value.  Discussion  of  individual  consciousness  and  race  con- 
sciousness. Deep  desire  of  the  lecturer  to  comprehend  the 
point  of  view  controlling  Oriental  mentality.  Observations 
on  the  distinctive  type  of  self-realisation  that  overspreads  like 
an  atmosphere  the  vast  populations  of  the  East. 

4.  In  the  effort  to  discern  the  elements  of  this  type  of  self-realisa- 
tion, marks  of  sublimity  are  discovered.  Discussion  of  the 
meaning  of  **  sublimity."  Expression  of  the  hope  that  Occi- 
dental self-consciousness  may  be  analysed  by  a  friendly  ob- 
server from  the  East. 

5.  Enumeration  of  four  elements  of  Sublimity  in  the  Oriental 
Consciousness:  The  Contemplative  Life;  The  Presence  of  the 
Unseen;  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being;  Reverence  for 
the  Sanctions  of  the  Past. 

6.  The  Contemplative  Life  considered  as  the  life  ruled  by 
thought;  that  esteems  thought  above  action.  Reflections  on 
the  importance  and  dignity  of  the  mind.  Influence  of  heredi- 
tary reflective  tendency  upon  the  modern  Indian  mind. 

7.  The  Presence  of  the  Unseen;  discussion  of  visibility  and 
invisibility,  and  of  the  relation  of  reality  to  the  invisible. 
Maya.  Significance  of  interest  in  the  invisible.  Expression 
of  hope  that  the  East  may  not  withdraw  from  her  interest 
in  the  Unseen,  by  reason  of  Western  materialism. 

8.  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being  constantly  present  in  the 
soul  of  the  East.  Survival  of  this  aspiration  beneath  poly- 
theism and  dissenting  philosophies. 


SYLLABUS  xxvii 


Reverence  for  the  Sanctions  of  the  Past.     Western  civilisation 
passing  under  the  control  of  the  future.     Shifting  of  the  centre 
of  significance  in  thought.     Contrast  between  East  and  West. 
Eastern  mind  sublimely  tenacious  of  its  inheritances.    Watch — 
word  of  the  East,  Faith. 


LECTURE  II 

THE  MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE   CHRISTIAN   RELIGION 

1.  "Religious  life  is  only  possible  when  one  gets  to  the  centre 
of  life,  which  is  God  Himself."  Relation  of  mysticism  to 
simplicity.     A  humble  and  quiet  mind  before  God. 

2.  Universality  of  the  phenomenon  of  mysticism:  evidence  herein 
of  the  essential  unity  of  the  race.  Comparison  of  various 
definitions  of  mysticism ;  Inge;  Pfleiderer;  Seth;  Augustine. 
Eternal  freshness  and  charm  of  the  greatest  mystical  concep- 
tions. 

3.  Consideration  of  objections  brought  against  mysticism.  Two 
classes  of  objections:  those  directed  against  the  general 
assumption  that  direct  contact  of  the  human  spirit  with  the 
Divine  Spirit  is  possible;  those  directed  against  particular 
forms  of  mysticism  characteristic  of  the  Oriental  Conscious- 
ness, namely.  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being.  Objections 
of  Nordau  and  Hermann  considered.  Recognition  of  the 
value  of  these  objections  as  tending  to  put  us  on  our  guard 
against  the  decline  of  the  ethical  element  in  mysticism.  Dis- 
cussion of  Oriental  mysticism  from  point  of  view  of  objectors: 
deliberate  aversion  of  the  mind  from  external  interests;  seclu- 
sion of  the  soul  tending  to  possible  impoverishing  of  experi- 
ence. Approach  to  the  Metaphysical  Absolute  by  negation 
tending  to  empty  the  soul  of  qualities  which  might  be  retained 
with  profit.  Concentration  of  the  mind  on  a  salvation  attain- 
able through  esoteric  knowledge  tending  to  unfavourable 
reactions  in  the  sphere  of  practical  morals.  Wise  counsel  of 
Professor  Deussen  against  hasty  judgment  of  Eastern  systems 
of  thought  by  Europeans. 


xxviii  BARROWS  LECTURES 

4.  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion  to  be  presented 
from  the  points  of  view  that  Christianity  is  an  Eastern  religion 
and  the  Bible  a  Sacred  Book  of  the  East.  Oriental  char- 
acteristics of  the  Christian  Scriptures.  Mystical  Element  in 
Christian  Religion  compared  to  a  river  flowing  continuously 
through  its  history. 

5.  Mysticism  finds  expression  in  Christianity  in   two   spheres 

of  consciousness:  objective  and  subjective.  Intense  per- 
ception of  the  universe  as  an  outward  expression  of  the 
vitaHty  of  God.  Reference  to  the  nature-mysticism  of  Words- 
worth and  Kingsley.  Resemblance  of  Kingsley's  mysticism 
to  some  phases  of  Oriental  thought;  e.g.,  discrimination  of 
the  soul  from  the  mind;  animistic  suggestions.  But  the 
Christian  mystic  regards  the  pervading  spiritual  presence  as 
that  of  a  Divine  friend.  The  objective  sense  of  God  but  the 
vestibule  of  the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion. 
The  temple  is  within. 

6.  Experience  of  God's  presence  fulfilled  and  verified  in  the 
sanctuary  of  the  inner  consciousness.  Inadequacy  of  reli- 
gious symbols.  Reality  is  within,  in  the  mysterious  depths 
of  the  Eternal  Wisdom.  Freedom  of  inner  experience  from 
ceremonialism  and  dogmatism.  This  inner  experience  of 
Christian  mysticism  has  come  to  the  West  from  the  East. 
Suggestion  of  influence  upon  Biblical  religion  of  early  Aryan 
thought,  through  Persian  channels.  Oriental  character  of 
Biblical  religion. 

7.  Apprehension  of  Christian  religion  by  Eastern  minds  com- 
pHcated  by  the  overshadowing  prominence  of  Western  ecclesi- 
astical institutions.  Possibility  of  leaving  these  out  of  con- 
sideration and  resting  on  the  fundamental  claim  of  all  true 
mysticism  that  the  seat  of  authority  is  within  the  soul  itself; 
not  in  some  outward  tribunal.  Truth  within  ourselves.  To 
this  conception  the  Christian  religion  lends  itself. 

8.  Consideration  of  the  ground  of  certitude  in  matters  of  religion. 
Higher  Christian  thinking  not  incompatible  with  correspond- 
ing plane  of  Indian  thinking.     Indian  students  of  religion 


SYLLABUS  XXIX 


often  repelled  from  the  Christian  religion  by  encountering 
only  the  commonplace  philosophy  of  untutored  minds.  Such 
minds  frequently,  through  inexperience,  unable  to  escape 
giving  misleading  representations  of  Christian  thought: 
dualistic  and  anthropomorphic.  Such  conceptions  not  repre- 
sentative of  the  higher  philosophy  of  the  Christian  religion. 
ProbabiHty  that  philosophical  Hinduism  suffers  from  cor- 
responding misrepresentations.  Attempt  of  the  lecturer  is 
to  present  in  outline  the  higher  Indian  view  of  the  universe. 
Maya.  Emancipation.  Soul-union  with  God. 
9.  In  certain  important  particulars  the  higher  forms  of  Indian 
and  Christian  philosophy  of  the  universe  not  incompatible. 
This  especially  evident  along  lines  of  true  mysticism:  right 
of  immediacy  in  the  approach  to  God;  criterion  of  truth 
found  to  exist  in  the  nature  of  consciousness.  Discernment 
of  a  Common  Ground  of  Being  beneath  the  multiplicity  of 
individual  existences.  Hereby  is  the  possibility  of  relation 
between  individual  existences.  Pluralism  gives  place  to 
monism.  Lotze.  Upton.  Foundation  of  Christian  mysticism 
is  laid  in  the  very  nature  of  things. 

10.  Mysticism,  or  immediate  access  to  God,  the  centre  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Yet  the  enlightened  Christian  does  not 
repudiate  the  organised  life  of  the  Church.  He  admits  the 
practical  values  of  organisation.  He  takes  his  place  as  a  unit 
in  the  institutional  life  of  Christianity,  submitting  volun- 
tarily to  rules  and  ordinances  for  the  general  good.  The  true 
Christian,  while  a  mystic,  is  not  a  recluse,  shut  up  within 
himself  for  his  soul's  salvation.  He  takes  a  great  interest  in 
the  world,  especially  in  the  lives  of  men. 

Interest  in  other  lives  promoted  by  the  philosophical  recogni- 
tion of  the  Common  Ground  of  life.  Christian  mysticism 
works  outward  into  social  service  and  self-fulfilment  through 
sacrifice. 

11.  The  secret  walk  with  God.  "I  have  experienced  God.^^ 
Union  of  the  Divine  and  human  in  a  single,  undivided 
Ufe. 


XXX  BARROWS  LECTURES 

LECTURE   III 

THE  WITNESS   OF   GOD  IN  THE   SOUL 

1 .  Deep  impression  made  upon  the  mind  when  it  reflects  on  the 
multiplicity  of  human  lives.  First  effect  confusing.  This  con- 
fusion removed  on  perceiving  the  action  and  reaction  of  think- 
ing beings.  The  thinking  world  a  wonderful  phenomenon. 
All  conditions  of  human  life  dependent  on  a  common  principle 
of  rationality.  Commercial  contracts;  domestic  relation- 
ships; intellectual  fellowship  rising  above  race  distinctions. 
Civilisation. 

2.  The  higher  Christian  thinking  seeks  a  rational  solution  of  the 
mystery  of  a  thinking  world.  Individual  lives  cannot  be 
regarded  as  absolutely  separate  existences,  each  one  being  a 
self-subsistent  whole.  No  adequate  explanation  of  human 
relations  from  such  a  theory.  The  only  adequate  explanation 
found  in  an  ultimate  monism. 

3.  Beneath  all  finite  life  is  one  Infinite  Ground  of  Being;  the 
Substance,  or  Life,  that  stands  under  all  finite  life.  In  all 
existences  the  Infinite  Being  exists;  thereby  men  communicate 
intelligibly  with  one  another  and  with  God.  In  this  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomenon  of  a  thinking  world  we  find  a  basis  for 
our  subject:  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul. 

4.  This  conception  not  foreign  to  Indian  conception  of  Being. 
Consideration  of  resemblance  between  this  conception  and 
the  doctrine  of  a  self-subsisting  Brahma  in  higher  Indian 
thinking.     Remark  on  Deism. 

5.  While  the  Christian  basis  here  stated  is  not  incompatible  with 
Indian  thought,  it  is  to  be  distinguished  from  pantheism. 
Tendency  of  pantheistic  thought  ultimately  obscures  indi- 
viduaHty,  causing  it  to  appear  illusory.  Moral  responsibility 
thereby  obscured;  for  conduct  thus  made  the  outcome  of  ante- 
cedent conditions,  each  determined  by  one  preceding.  Re- 
mark on  recognition  of  practical  distinction  between  God  and 
man  in  Hinduism.  Discussion  of  the  Christian  view  of  per- 
sonality.    Glorious  function  of  the  mind.     Illustration  from 


SYLLABUS  XXXI 


the  qualities  of  memory.  Nature  of  moral  freedom.  Desire 
of  the  lecturer  to  refrain  from  controversy.  His  assurance 
that  whatsoever  is  of  the  essence  of  truth  must  forever  abide. 
Christian  view  of  personality:  the  mind,  stimulated  by  its 
self-determining  capacity,  consecrates  its  powers  to  the 
highest  use;  the  soul,  garlanded  with  freedom  and  illumined 
with  the  Spirit  of  God,  confronts  moral  responsibility  and 
chooses  righteousness. 

6.  A  basis  thus  laid,  upon  which  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul 
becomes  a  reasonable  and  authoritative  conception.  The  will 
not  the  automatic  instrument  of  determinism.  It  is  self- 
determining;  consummating  action  by  decision,  so  taking  on 
moral  responsibiUty. 

7.  The  higher  Christian  thinking  is  conscious  of  a  Divine  Witness 
in  man,  for  which  temperament  and  pious  tradition  do  not 
account.  This  Witness  also  a  Presence.  This  Witness  simi- 
larly manifested  in  innumerable  souls.  Conclusion  reached 
that  this  Presence  bearing  witness  in  human  souls  is  identical 
with  the  Common  Ground  and  Substance  of  Being.  This 
conclusion  strengthened  by  considering  the  nature  of  man's 
mental  power;  which  is  of  the  highest  order;  self-conscious, 
possessing  memory  and  aspiration,  continuous,  consecutive, 
universal.  These  powers  of  rational  existence  viewed  as 
projections  of  the  Infinite  Consciousness. 

8.  The  formulas  of  negation  considered  as  tending  to  Hmit  one's 
joy  in  meditating  upon  the  fulness  of  the  Divine  Essence. 
Nevertheless  the  sublimity  of  these  formulas  is  admitted  and 
the  belief  is  expressed  that  they  may  without  distortion  be 
devoted  to  the  service  of  a  higher  Oriental  Christianity. 

9.  The  higher  Christian  thinking  acknowledges  that  in  the  quest 
for  God  we  must  pass  beyond  attributes,  qualities,  and  all 
notes  of  personality.  Although  we  discover  the  attributes  of 
God,  yet  beyond  them  remains  His  unsearchableness.  This 
thought  demanded  ahke  by  reason  and  experience.  The 
whole  essence  of  God  cannot  be  expressed  in  terms  of  attribute 
and  quality.     Corroboration  of  this  view  in  Holy  Scripture. 


xxxii  BARROWS  LECTURES 

Analogy  to  the  unsearchableness  of  God  found  in  the  ''Buried 
Life"  of  man.  The  sub-conscious  hfe.  Pure  Being  not 
incompatible  with  rational  and  moral  personality  of  the 
Divine;  even  as  subliminal  consciousness  in  man  not  incom- 
patible with  reason,  conscience,  and  will.  The  unfathomable 
yet  personal  God  may  bear  witness  through  the  sub-conscious 
life  of  man,  in  the  region  of  human  reason,  conscience,  and 
feeling.  Intimation  of  three  modes  of  this  witness:  the  still, 
small  Voice;  the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy;  the  Christ  of  God. 

10.  The  still,  small  Voice:  its  witness  universal;  beneath  all  forms 
of  religion;  eternal  distinction  of  right  and  wrong.  The 
Voice  of  God  Who  cannot  be  silenced.  Conscience.  The 
diseases  of  conscience;  the  health  of  conscience.  Conscience 
without  significance  unless  considered  in  relation  to  God. 
Conscience  the  ear  of  the  soul,  by  means  of  which  the  still, 
small  Voice  is  heard.  The  imperative  of  an  ideal  righteous- 
ness. The  Christian  conception  of  the  ministry  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

1 1 .  The  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy.  God  speaks  to  the  inward  life 
through  truth  outwardly  declared.  Revelation  through  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  Inspiration  in  the  sub-con- 
scious life  resulting  in  the  utterance  of  Truth.  The  Sure 
Word  of  Prophecy  vindicates  its  reality  by  producing  in  the 
soul  the  effect  of  God.  Observations  on  the  nature  of  Truth. 
Discrimination  of  Truth  from  antiquity,  usage,  and  declara- 
tive authority.  The  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul  confirming 
the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy. 

12.  The  Christ  of  God.  This  mode  of  the  Divine  witness  to  be 
treated  fully  in  succeeding  lectures.  At  this  point  two  pre- 
liminary statements  are  made: 

a)  It  is  inadequate  to  consider  the  Christian  religion  in  any 
light  that  excludes  the  Divinity  of  Christ. 

b)  The  sublime  elements  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  lend 
themselves  to  the  most  profound  interpretation  of  the 
Divinity  of  Christ. 


SYLLABUS  xxxiii 


LECTURE   IV 

THE   WITNESS   OF   THE   SOUL   TO   GOD 

1.  Brief  review  of  the  three  modes  of  Divine  witness.  The_ 
Oriental  Consciousness  qualified  to  discharge  for  the  world 
a  service  of  which  it  stands  in  need.  Present  need  of  the 
world  a  Christianity  deepened  and  spiritualised  through 
recovery  of  elements  germane  to  the  Oriental  Consciousness. 
Whatever  great  need  arises  in  the  world  implies  God's  sum- 
mons to  those  who  have  the  means  to  meet  that  need. 

2.  The  Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God  a  proposition  acceptable  to 
those  holding  a  monistic  philosophy.  For  the  soul  lives  in 
God  even  as  God  lives  in  the  soul.  Remark  on  Professor 
James's  definition  of  religion.  Ethical  consciousness  of  the 
Infinite  necessary  to  the  creation  of  a  religion.  Remark  on 
various  theories  of  the  origin  of  religion.  Conclusion  that 
religion  springs  from  man's  oneness  of  nature  with  the  Infinite 
Ground  and  Source  of  Being. 

3.  Upon  such  a  theory  the  message  of  religion  should  prove  an 
incentive  to  noble  living  and  a  noble  estimation  of  life.  Mor- 
bid self-depreciation,  and  its  injurious  results.  Relation  of 
true  penitence  to  a  high  estimate  of  self.  Irrepressible  nature 
of  ethical  desire.  Inadequacy  of  material  conditions  as  a 
ground  of  contentment.  Value  of  materialism  acknowledged, 
but  its  limitations  pointed  out.  Voluntary  renunciation  as 
seen  in  India.  Contrasted  with  discontent  found  among  some 
having  great  possessions. 

4.  Our  religious  instincts  suggest  the  possibility  of  participation 
in  the  Divine  purpose  as  well  as  in  the  Divine  Life.  This 
suggestion  accounted  for  by  the  necessary  unity  of  conscious- 
ness. The  zeal  of  the  soul  must  be  to  co-operate  with  that 
Eternal  Will  of  Goodness  to  which  it  is  inseparably  conjoined. 

5.  Discussion  of  the  moral  significance  of  atheism.  A  tragic 
witness  to  God  found  in  the  effort  of  the  atheist  to  suppress 
the  instinct  and  tendency  of  the  soul.  Doubt  considered  as  a 
Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God.     Doubt  sometimes  the  result  of  an 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


xxxiv  BARROWS  LECTURES 

overwhelming  apprehension  of  God.     "I  could  not  see  for  the 
glory  of  that  Light." 

6.  The  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being  considered  as  a  positive 
Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God.  Great  significance  of  this.  Its 
place  in  Oriental  Consciousness.  The  East  qualified  for 
important  Christian  service  by  reason  of  this  characteristic. 

7.  With  the  growth  of  Christianity,  the  Oriental  Aspiration 
toward  Ultimate  Being  has  been  supplemented  in  important 
ways.  Discrimination  between  contradictory  and  supple- 
mentary expressions  of  religious  instinct.  Analysis  of  the  fact 
of  contradictory  expressions  of  rehgious  instinct.  Examples 
found  in  divergent  Christian  beliefs  on  matters  of  secondary 
importance.  This  not  incompatible  with  agreement  on 
fundamental  questions.  Contradictory  expressions  found  to 
exist  between  the  several  great  rehgions  of  the  world.  This 
fact  not  incompatible  with  the  development  of  supplementary 
expressions  of  religious  thought  in  later  religions  enriching 
and  completing  the  content  of  earlier  religions. 

8.  The  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being  the  most  fundamental 
form  of  soul-longing.  Pantheism  involves  primarily  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  visible  for  the  sake  of  the  invisible.  Message 
of  pantheism  to  modern  life.  Spinoza.  Von  Hartmann. 
Yet  pantheism  as  a  corrective  of  materialism  only  partially 
effective.  It  requires  to  be  supplemented,  particularly  along 
lines  relating  to  man's  ethical  consciousness.  Remark  on 
Professor  Deussen's  view  of  the  relation  of  the  Veda  and  the 
Bible. 

9.  How  does  Christianity  in  its  highest  realm  of  thinking  sup- 
plement a  pantheistic  philosophy?  The  message  of  pan- 
theism distinctively  a  message  to  the  intellectual  consciousness 
of  man.  The  message  of  Christianity  distinctively  a  message 
to  his  moral  consciousness.  Pantheism  deals  with  the  facts 
and  sanctions  of  the  Pure  Reason;  Christianity  with  the  facts 
and  sanctions  of  the  Practical  Reason.  The  moral  conscious- 
ness as  actual  as  the  intellectual  consciousness.  If  the  last  be 
acknowledged,  the  first  must  also  be  acknowledged.     The 


SYLLABUS  XXXV 


two  are  co-ordinated  in  man.  To  deny  moral  consciousness 
would  require  the  denial  of  intellectual  consciousness;  equiva- 
lent to  the  denial  of  the  Absolute. 

10.  The  nature  of  moral  consciousness;  primarily  existent  in  the 
sub-conscious  life.  The  sense  of  the  value  of  good.  The 
authority  of  good  for  ourselves.  "I  ought."  Power  to 
discern  between  higher  and  lower  affections.  To  what 
source  must  we  attribute  moral  consciousness?  Evidently 
that  source  must  be  identical  with  the  source  of  intellectual 
consciousness.  The  Ultimate  Intelligence  and  the  Heart  of 
God.     The  Witness  of  the  Soul  to  the  moral  character  of  God. 

1 1 .  Relation  of  pantheism  and  Christianity  in  the  world's  advance 
to  an  adequate  knowledge  of  God.  Mission  of  pantheism  to 
assert  the  Being  of  God:  that  He  is.  Mission  of  Christianity 
to  assert  the  Character  of  God:  what  He  is. 

12.  But  is  it  admissible  to  say  what  God  is?  Is  not  the  Infinite 
unknowable?  Comparison  of  Western  and  Eastern  tend- 
encies under  the  common  impulse  of  reverence.  The  West 
defines;  the  East  refrains  from  defining.  The  adjustment  is 
obtained  by  co-ordinating  these  tendencies.  Thus  pantheism 
and  Christianity  become  co-operative. 

13.  Comparison  of  ethical  ideals  viewed  in  relation  to  culture. 
Love,  the  highest  ethical  ideal;  the  highest  fact  in  conscious- 
ness. The  Best.  Conclusion  that  Love  is  the  most  central 
fact  in  the  moral  consciousness  of  Ultimate  Being.  "God  is 
Love."  This  love  we  cannot  conceive  in  its  essence  within  the 
Moral  Consciousness  of  God.  It  is  from  our  point  of  view 
unknowable.  But  God  can  come  to  us  and  confirm  our  hopes 
through  self-manifestation  in  the  form  of  an  Incarnate  Life. 
Has  God  so  come  to  us  ?  Has  there  at  any  time  issued  from 
the  Inconceivable  Absolute  an  Interpreter  of  the  secrets 
of  Divine  Intelligence  ? 


xxxvi  BARROWS  LECTURES 

LECTURE  V 

THE  DISTINCTIVE  MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

1 .  Great  religions,  like  great  men,  have  strongly  marked  distinc- 
tions. A  religion  of  joy.  A  religion  of  beauty.  A  religion 
of  contemplation.  The  Christian  religion  possesses  these 
quahties,  but  is,  also,  distinctively  a  religion  of  character. 
This  its  unifying  principle;  to  contemplate  God  on  the  moral 
side  of  Being,  in  terms  of  the  Ethical  Ideal.  ''The  new  ele- 
ment which  Christianity  has  introduced  into  the  thought  of 
the  world." 

2.  The  term  ^'Religion  of  Character"  as  applied  to  Christianity 
not  intended  to  depreciate  the  ethical  values  in  other  religions. 
Ethics  and  culture.  Joy,  beauty,  contemplation  take  on  new 
meanings  in  a  religion  of  character.  Hereby  it  may  be  said 
to  introduce  a  new  element  into  the  thought  of  the  world. 

3.  Wherein  consists  the  distinctive  moral  grandeur  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion?  The  importance  of  a  distinction  judged  by 
what  lies  back  of  it.  The  moral  distinction  of  Christianity 
does  not  rest  on  institutions,  civilisation,  tradition,  or  ecclesi- 
astical authority.  It  rests  upon  the  personality  of  the  Incar- 
nate Life.  The  appearance  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  world 
understood  by  few  of  His  Disciples.  His  rejection  by  Judaism 
and  by  the  world.  His  Death  and  Resurrection.  Evidence 
of  His  transforming  power  accumulates  with  time.  The 
moral  authority  of  the  religion  of  Christ  determined  from 
history  and  from  experience.     These  sources  open  to  all. 

4.  He  who  would  apprehend  the  distinctive  grandeur  of  the 
Christian  religion  must  consider  the  Nature  of  Man,  the 
Nature  of  God,  and  the  need  of  a  rehgion  of  character  in  the 
world.  He  must  then  consider  the  life  purpose  of  Jesus 
Christ;  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Christian  Conscious- 
ness; the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Revelation  of  the 
Heart  of  God. 

5.  Discussion  of  the  growth  of  personal  rehgious  experience 
advancing  from  tradition  and  ceremonial  observance  to  the 


SYLLABUS  xxxvii 


inner  sanctuary  of  soul-consciousness.  The  deep  secret  of 
the  Christian  religion  cannot  be  taught  externally.  The 
basis  of  ethical  reality.  The  things  of  the  Spirit  must  be 
spiritually  discerned. 

6.  Steps  that  should  be  taken  by  one  seeking  in  the  Christian 
religion.  The  starting-point  is  one's  self.  Fascination  of 
the  study  of  self.  Wonderful  influence  of  actions  and  words 
proceeding  from  human  selves.  Greatest  mystery  of  selfhood, 
the  will  and  the  ethical  elements  in  volition.  Von  Hartmann 
"on  the  laboratory  of  volition."  The  self  not  one  but  many. 
Correspondences  of  human  personality.  This  shown  to 
proceed  from  the  Immanent  Life  beneath  all  individual  selves. 

7.  From  this  we  advance  to  a  conception  of  the  Nature  of  God 
in  its  relation  to  man.  Picton  on  monism.  God  not  an 
isolated  Being,  but  a  Source.  We  are  His  offspring  and  in 
Him  we  live.  But  the  secret  of  the  Christian  religion  cannot 
be  found  in  abstract  meditation  on  the  nature  of  Being. 
Christianity  advances  from  the  point  of  Divine  Immanence, 
toward  practical  moral  conclusions.  Man's  invincible  con- 
viction of  freedom.  Absolute  idealism  describes  this  con- 
viction as  illusory.  This  explanation  fraught  with  ethical 
difficulty  and  peril.  The  Christian  religion  organised  around 
the  central  fact  of  an  ego  which  is  a  real  other  to  God;  a  moral 
person,  responsible  for  its  choices  and  its  acts. 

8.  The  distinctive  moral  grandeur  of  the  Christian  religion  and 
its  practical  value  for  the  world  found  in  the  fact  that  it  exists 
for  the  purpose  of  dealing  with  the  two  ethical  realities,  moral 
evil  and  moral  good.  This  is  its  reason  for  being.  It  is  a 
religion  of  character.  Nevertheless  it  is  fully  acknowledged 
that  pantheism,  with  its  profound  conception  of  the  nature  of 
Being,  is  a  preparation  of  the  highest  value  for  the  distinctive 
ethical  message  of  the  Christian  religion.  Reference  to  the 
temperamental  tendency  of  the  West  to  externalise  God. 
Relative  limitation  of  mysticism  in  the  West. 

9.  The  religion  of  character  in  its  relation  to  mysticism.  Recog- 
nition of  the  mystery  of  being  deepens  the  sense  of  sin  and  the 


xxxviii  BARROWS  LECTURES 

reality  of  penitence.  It  also  qualifies  to  discriminate  motives 
and  to  discern  higher  affections.  It  finds  in  holy  love  the 
highest  ideal  of  moral  consciousness,  and  in  the  fact  of  Jesus 
Christ  the  answer  to  the  soul's  longing  for  confirmation  of  its 
instinctive  perception  of  the  best. 

10.  The  fact  of  Christ  a  threefold  fact.  The  first  element  in  it  is 
the  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ  as  shown  historically  in  His 
visible  Ministry.  This  must  be  supplemented  by  considering 
His  continuous  power  in  the  Christian  Consciousness  and  His 
Divinity  as  the  Revelation  of  the  Heart  of  God.  These 
aspects  act  and  react  on  one  another.  The  significance  of 
Christ  not  immediately  discerned.  It  required  meditation, 
reflection,  comparison  after  His  departure.  The  growth,  in 
the  second  century,  under  Eastern  influence,  of  a  profound 
recognition  of  the  Nature  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Brightness 
of  the  Everlasting  Light,  the  Word  that  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God. 

11.  After  two  thousand  years  of  testing,  the  Christian  religion 
stands  confirmed  in  the  historical  element  and  in  the  mystical 
element.  Appeal  to  the  Oriental  Consciousness  to  assimilate 
this  religion  and  interpret  it  to  the  world. 


LECTURE  VI 


THE   MINISTRY   OF   THE   ORIENTAL   CONSCIOUSNESS   IN   A   WORLD- 
WIDE  KINGDOM   OF   CHRIST 

I .  The  lecturer  has  not  concealed  his  purpose  in  the  delivery  of 
these  lectures.  He  views  with  concern  tendencies  developing 
in  the  West  toward  the  spirit  of  aggression,  externalism,  and 
the  love  of  pleasure.  He  regards  the  triumph  of  such  tenden- 
cies as  a  calamity  which  would  involve  the  world  and  react 
with  particular  severity  upon  the  East.  He  believes  that  the 
only  correction  of  these  tendencies  must  be  a  reinterpretation 
of  the  Christian  religion,  especially  of  those  truths  and  values 
that  lie  chiefly  in  the  mystical  realm.     These  truths  and 


SYLLABUS  xxxix 


values  inhere  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Eternal 
Answer  coming  forth  from  unknowable  depths  of  the  Infinite 
to  confirm  the  soul's  highest  moral  ideal,  to  disclose  the  holy 
love  which  is  the  central  principle  in  the  Heart  of  God,  to 
interpret  that  love  by  sacrifice. 

2.  The  lecturer  believes  that  the  sublime  qualities  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness  are  distinctively  those  required  to  accomplish 
this  reinterpretation  of  Christianity.  He  therefore  appeals  to 
the  East  to  confer  an  inestimable  good  upon  the  world  by 
becoming  the  champion  of  a  higher  Christian  thinking, 
conceived  in  terms  of  Oriental  mentality  but  universally  appli- 
cable as  a  corrective  of  overdeveloped  materialism.  That  he 
may  be  thoroughly  understood  in  his  appeal,  he  speaks  in  this 
concluding  lecture  of  three  things:  the  deeper  mysteries  of 
Jesus  Christ;  the  qualities  in  modern  civilisation  that  blind 
men  to  those  mysteries;  the  qualities  in  Oriental  Conscious- 
ness that  are  divinely  empowered  to  interpret  them. 

3.  A  pantheistic  inheritance  qualifies  for  the  apprehension  of  the 
deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ.  Inadequacy  of  regarding 
Christ  merely  as  a  distinguished  Teacher.  If  He  be  but 
that,  He  should  not  be  accorded  greater  honour  than  is  given 
to  other  Gurus.  The  dominating  civilisations  of  the  world 
tend  to  relinquish  the  mystical  conception  of  the  Nature  of 
Christ  in  favour  of  an  external  and  formal  appreciation  of  His 
words.  This  tendency  can  best  be  resisted  by  the  aid  of  those 
who  approach  the  fact  of  Christ  from  the  point  of  view  of  a 
pantheistic  inheritance. 

4.  Such  an  approach  to  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  begin  in  the  historical  fact:  the  hfe  purpose  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Christ's  historical  appearance  in  the  world  within 
a  measurable  distance  from  the  present  age.  Critical  investi- 
gation has  completely  established  the  historical  reahty  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  authenticity  of  words  and  deeds  attrib- 
uted to  Him.  The  influence  of  the  personality  of  Christ 
upon  His  disciples.  The  miracles  and  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
The  Divinity  of  Christ  appears,  in  history,  chiefly  "in  the  pur- 


xl  BARROWS  LECTURES 

pose  governing  His  Life.  Christ  formed  one  plan  and  exe- 
cuted it:  to  give  happiness  to  the  world  by  establishing  a 
world-wide  Kingdom  of  Righteousness.  He  Himself  the 
Head  of  this  Kingdom.  This  claim  of  supremacy  not  incom- 
patible with  His  meek  and  lowly  Spirit.  Christ  and ' '  Enthusi- 
asm for  Humanity,"  He  proceeded  to  carry  into  effect  this 
life  purpose  not  by  force  but  by  sacrifice.  The  glorious  sig- 
nificance of  the  Death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

5.  The  power  of  Christ  in  the  Christian  Consciousness.  Dis- 
cussion of  the  nature  of  consciousness.  Jesus  Christ  seeks  to 
accomplish  His  life  purpose  within  the  self-knowing  soul  of 
each  individual  man.  In  the  soul  Christ  becomes  known, 
not  historically  and  externally,  but  through  an  esoteric  experi- 
ence as  the  Ground  of  a  morally  transformed  and  illumined 
consciousness.  The  apprehension  of  Christ  Mystical  an 
advance  beyond  the  apprehension  of  Christ  Historical.  Yet 
the  Christ  Mystical,  immediately  discerned  in  the  circle  of 
consciousness,  is  the  continuous,  present,  subjective  manifes- 
tation of  the  same  Christ  Historical,  and  not  another.  The 
mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ  not  nature-marvels  taking  the  form 
of  external  signs.  They  are  mysteries  of  the  Spirit,  inwardly 
apprehended  in  terms  of  ethical  self-realisation.  He  comes 
to  animate  and  control  our  moral  powers.  He  comes  to  regu- 
late our  natural  tendencies  by  furnishing  us  with  new  motives. 
He  comes  to  interpret  to  us  the  depths  of  our  own  being, 
the  suggestions  of  our  sub-conscious  life. 

6.  The  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Revelation  of  the  Heart  of 
God.  The  Oriental  Consciousness  has  its  inheritance  in  this 
mystical  truth,  and  its  power  to  restore  that  truth  to  pristine 
grandeur,  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world.  Influence  of  the 
Person  of  Christ  on  the  Oriental  thought  of  the  second  century. 
He  was  recognised  as  the  Logos;  the  Revelation  of  the  Heart 
of  God.  This  Revelation  supremely  accomplished  by  Christ 
through  His  Cross  and  Passion.  Meditation  on  the  loneli- 
ness of  Christ's  sacrifice.  Its  unique  significance  in  the  midst 
of  the  whole  field  of  terrestrial  suffering. 


SYLLABUS  xli 


7.  Concluding  address:  Remarks  on  the  qualities  now  develop- 
ing in  Western  civilisation  through  the  passion  for  progress  and 
the  triumph  of  utilitarianism.  Full  acknowledgment  of  the 
value  of  qualities  active  in  Western  civilisation.  Perils  attend- 
ant on  those  qualities.  Final  appeal  for  co-operation  from  the 
cultured  circles  of  the  East  to  accomplish  a  reinterpretation  of 
Christianity  consonant  with  the  splendid  mysticism  in  which 
lay  its  original  power. 


LECTURE  ONE 

ELEMENTS   OF  SUBLIMITY  IN  THE   ORIENTAL 
CONSCIOUSNESS 

Four  years  have  passed  since  the  happy  moment 
when,  for  the  first  time,  I  saw  India  and  looked  into  the 
intellectual  countenances  of  her  people.  That  moment 
was  a  point  of  consummation  in  my  life.  It  fulfilled  the 
dream  of  childhood,  the  hope  of  youth,  the  prayer  of 
riper  years.  I  know  not  why  it  has  pleased  God,  from 
the  beginning  of  my  days,  to  knit  my  heart  to  India.  So 
it  has  been,  and  so  it  is.  Four  years  ago  I  landed  here 
a  stranger  to  find  myself  among  brethren.  The  scenes 
that  passed  before  my  eyes  were  unfamiliar;  the  voice 
that  welcomed  me  to  a  brotherhood  of  the  spirit  was 
the  old,  sweet  voice  of  love.  The  Orient  was  a  new 
world,  yet  in  the  companionship  of  the  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness I  felt  at  home.  Your  attitude,  no  less  than 
your  spirit,  made  my  way  throughout  India  a  path  of 
privilege.  Courtesy,  patient  hearing,  the  generosity  of 
tolerance  were  your  God-speed  to  me  everywhere.  Of 
obstruction  and  opposition  at  your  hands,  I  had  no 
knowledge.  You  permitted  me  to  speak,  without  re- 
serve, not  only  of  more  general  religious  conceptions, 
such  as  are  our  common  treasure,  but  of  distinctive 
forms  and  relations  which  those  conceptions  have  taken 
on  through  the  power  of  Christ  and  a  Christian  philoso- 
phy and  ethics.  By  the  measure  of  my  love  for  that 
Christian  philosophy  and  ethics  and  for  that  Christ 


BARROWS  LECTURES 


Who  is  their  Source  is  the  measure  of  my  affection  and 
admiration  for  brethren  of  other  faiths  who  could  not 
only  tolerate  but  encourage  my  freedom  of  speech. 
The  subjects  of  which  I  treated  at  that  time,  when  first 
discharging  the  duty  of  Barrows  Lecturer  to  India  from 
the  University  of  Chicago  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, were  those  that  lie  near  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
religion :  The  Idea  of  God ;  The  Person  of  Christ  as  the 
Supreme  Manifestation  of  God;  Sin  and  the  Sacrifice 
of  Christ;  Holiness;  Immortality.  To  theologies  and 
ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  West,  claims  and  con- 
tentions of  rival  sects  in  Europe  and  America,  I  gave 
no  consideration  in  my  lectures.  I  regarded  these 
things  as  incidental  developments  and  local  adaptations 
occurring  in  the  political  and  temperamental  evolution 
of  Western  civilisation ;  not  attractive  to,  nor  authorita- 
tive for,  the  East.  My  interest  lay  in  separating  the 
essence  of  the  Christian  religion  from  those  accretions 
and  accessories  occurring  in  the  West,  and  presenting 
it  for  consideration  upon  its  merits  as  something  intrin- 
sically applicable  to  our  human  consciousness  as  such. 
I  spoke  with  this  conviction  and  from  this  point  of  view : 
that  man  as  man,  be  he  Oriental  or  Occidental,  is  bound 
to  find  in  the  essence  of  the  Christian  religion  that  which 
concerns  him  as  a  man,  appeals  to  him,  seeks  to  win  him 
and  to  control  him,  through  reason,  conscience,  and 
affection. 

The  generous  attention  with  which  my  lectures  were 
heard  in  Indian  circles  of  culture  awakened  in  me  irre- 
pressible reflections,  that  passed  beyond  the  plane  of 
personal  concerns.      Gratitude  and  love  toward  cour- 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      3 

teous  and  tolerant  brethren  gave  place  to  profounder 
feelings.  As  I  grew  to  apprehend  the  qualities  of  the 
Oriental  Consciousness  I  saw  their  potential  value  for 
the  higher  interpretation  of  the  Christian  religion.  If 
became  clear  to  me  that  in  the  soul  of  the  East  are 
powers  and  gifts  which  stand  in  a  significant  relation 
to  the  higher  truths  of  Christianity;  correspondences 
which  cannot  be  accidental,  between  the  most  sublime 
aspects  of  the  religion  of  Christ  and  the  most  sublime 
qualities  of  the  Eastern  soul.  Many  times  during  the 
former  visit  among  you  I  found  myself  exclaiming, 
How  marvellously  is  the  East  qualified  to  be  the  inter- 
preter of  Christian  mysteries;  and  how  marvellously 
does  the  profound  essence  of  Christian  belief  lend  itself 
to  the  modes  of  Oriental  Consciousness!  Is  there  not 
here  evidence  of  Divine  intention,  long  unrealised  ? 
While  the  West  heretofore  has  regarded  Christianity  as 
its  own,  an  indigenous  growth  that  might  with  difficulty 
be  introduced  to  the  East  as  an  exotic,  can  it  be  that 
the  Oriental  Consciousness  is,  in  fact,  the  natural  soil 
of  this  Divine  plant,  and  that,  at  last,  after  many  cen- 
turies, from  the  fruitful  ground  of  the  Eastern  soul,  this 
seed  of  God  is  to  spring  to  the  perfect  type  and  bear 
fruit  a  hundred  fold  ? 

Filled  with  these  reflections,  I  returned  to  my  native 
land  at  the  close  of  my  former  term  of  lectures,  and  gave 
myself  over  to  meditation.  Renewal  of  association  with 
current  forms  and  types  of  Western  Christianity  did  not 
dispel  the  impression  received  by  contact  with  the  East. 
It  acquired  definiteness.  It  organised  about  itself  vari- 
ous scattered  and  subsidiary  impressions.     It  became  a 


BARROWS  LECTURES 


deliberate  conviction.  It  produced  in  my  soul  a  deep 
desire  to  return  to  the  East,  to  re-enter  the  companion- 
ship of  the  most  thoughtful  minds,  and,  in  their  presence, 
to  consider  thoroughly  what,  if  it  be  true,  is  a  significant 
truth.  At  that  juncture  there  came  to  me,  unanticipated 
and  unsought,  a  second  appointment  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  as  Barrows  Lecturer  to  India  and  the 
Far  East.  It  seemed  a  Divine  opportunity.  It  opened 
a  way  to  present  in  ordered  form,  to  your  tolerant  and 
discriminating  minds,  the  results  of  my  experiences  and 
reflections.  Therefore  I  am  here;  not,  I  trust,  as  a 
stranger,  but  rather  as  a  friend  returning  to  his  friends, 
with  whom  he  has  taken  sweet  counsel  before,  and  on 
whose  broad  and  catholic  friendship  he  now  depends.  I 
do  not  consider  that  our  hereditary  divergences  of  racial 
and  religious  tradition  offer  an  impediment  to  fellow- 
ship in  these  hours  of  earnest  thinking.  You  are  Indian. 
So,  in  spirit  and  in  interest,  am  I.  With  your  history 
and  your  traditions  I  am  familiar.  With  your  literature 
and  your  philosophy  I  have  some  slight  acquaintance. 
With  your  aspirations  for  national  unity,  for  social 
betterment  of  communities,  for  spread  of  general  and 
technical  education,  for  equalising  of  opportunity,  and 
for  advancement  of  popular  virtue  and  happiness,  I  am, 
as  an  American,  in  full  accord.  Best  of  all,  with  many 
members  of  Indian  society  I  can  now  claim  the  honour 
of  personal  friendship.  It  seems  therefore  a  natural 
thing  to  lay  before  you  the  outcome  of  reflections 
av/akened  by  a  study  of  Indian  personality,  in  its  psycho- 
logical relation  to  profound  and  lofty  elements  of  the 
Christian  religion ;  in  other  words :   The  Witness  of  the 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      5 

Oriental  Consciousness  to  Jesus  Christ.  To  accomplish 
this  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction  will  involve  three 
successive  lines  of  procedure,  to  be  followed  in  the  six 
lectures  of  the  course. 

First :  Analysis  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  an  outside  observer  in  sympathy 
with  his  subject,  will  be  required  as  part  of  my  argument. 
The  attempt  to  analyse  the  Oriental  Consciousness  often 
has  been  made  in  and  by  the  West;  yet  not  always,  it 
may  be,  by  one  whose  soul  was  in  accord  with  his  sub- 
ject. Some  have  spoken  in  theory,  which  is,  commonly, 
to  speak  in  ignorance  and  in  error;  to  shoot  at  long 
range  through  fog,  and  take  chances  of  hitting  the  mark. 
Some  have  spoken  in  knowledge,  yet  in  knowledge 
vitiated  by  prejudices  of  race,  or  limited  through  official 
restriction,  or  chilled  by  coldness  of  scientific  classifica- 
tion; seeing,  yet  not  seeing,  because  what  one  saw  was 
misinterpreted,  not  through  ignorance  but  through  lack 
of  love,  that  great  interpreter  of  all  mysteries  of  the 
soul.  May  there  not  be  room  for  one  to  speak  of  the 
Oriental  Consciousness  from  whom  prejudices  of  race, 
restrictions  of  office,  coldness  of  science,  are  absent, 
and  who,  in  their  place,  offers  these  qualifications 
only :  some  measure  of  personal  contact  with  Orientals, 
instinctive  honour  toward  man  as  man,  and  love  for 
Eastern  hearts  and  Eastern  minds  that  deepens  with 
experience  ? 

I  am  prepared  to  be  told  that  my  attempt  to  analyse 
the  Oriental  Consciousness  may  be  regarded  as  an  act 
of  audacity.  It  cannot  be  esteemed  an  act  of  unfriend- 
liness by  those  who  know  with  what   reverence  and 


BARROWS  LECTURES 


appreciation  it  is  undertaken ;  nor  will  it  be  resented  by 
such  as  hear  me  to  the  end. 

Secondly:  I  shall  endeavour  to  unfold  certain  meta- 
physical aspects  of  the  Christian  religion  which  are 
most  characteristic  of  it,  and  which,  too  often,  are  hidden 
from  Eastern  eyes  by  forms  and  institutions  of  Christian 
churches.  In  the  course  of  twenty  centuries  outward 
forms  and  institutions  have  arisen  as  vehicles  of  truth, 
customs  of  worship,  or  methods  of  convenience.  It  is 
necessary  that  they  should  have  arisen ;  but,  to  an  extent 
quite  unappreciated  by  most  Europeans,  these  external- 
ities may  relatively  conceal,  from  Oriental  observers, 
those  deep  things  of  God,  those  abysses  of  the  Spirit, 
which  are  the  real  glories  of  Christian  belief,  and  the 
chief  treasures  of  enlightened  Christian  Consciousness. 
The  mystical  elements  in  the  religion  of  Christ;  the 
witness  of  God  in  the  soul;  the  witness  of  the  soul  to 
God;  the  controlling  moral  convictions  that  issue  from 
these  sources  constitute  the  essence  of  the  religion.  I 
shall  try  to  show  that  all  serious  attempts  to  understand 
Christianity  and,  much  more,  to  come  under  its  power, 
must  take  the  form  of  approaches  to  these  elements  of 
its  imperishable  and  universal  essence.  It  is  here,  and 
only  here,  that  we  can  be  said  to  enter  the  spiritual 
temple  of  this  Faith.  Ecclesiastical  systems,  forms  of 
worship,  official  distinctions  are  occasional,  variable, 
partial,  often  transitory  modes  of  expression ;  inadequate 
yet  necessary  attempts  to  give  utterance  to  that  which 
in  its  completeness  transcends  utterance.  They  who 
have  seen  most  clearly  into  the  depths  of  the  Christian 
religion  know  how  little  of  its  profounder  content  can  be 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      7 

expressed  in  forms  of  language  and  ceremonial  acts. 
He  who  has  known  Christ,  not  after  the  flesh  but  in  the 
Spirit,  has,  with  St.  Paul,  "heard  unspeakable  words, 
which  it  is  not  lawful  for  a  man  to  utter."' 

Thirdly :  If  I  shall  succeed  in  the  attempts  described 
above,  on  the  one  hand,  to  analyse  the  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness so  far  as  to  draw  attention  to  some  of  its  sub- 
lime elements;  on  the  other  hand,  to  analyse  those 
metaphysical  aspects  of  the  Christian  religion  which 
contain  its  hidden  life  and  power,  I  shall  then  have  the 
honour  of  pointing  out,  to  such  as  may  have  patience  to 
hear  me  to  the  end,  not  only  the  fact  of  correspondence 
between  the  finer  qualities  of  the  Eastern  soul  and  the 
most  spiritual  subjects  of  Christian  belief,  but  also  the 
significance  of  that  fact  for  the  world.  The  religion  of 
Christ,  by  virtue  of  its  inherent  cosmopolitanism  and 
vitality,  appears  to  be  spreading  from  heart  to  heart 
and  land  to  land,  carried  not  so  much  by  man's  direct 
intention  and  effort  as  by  the  force  of  invisible  influences. 
Its  approaches  appear  to  be  received  with  less  suspicion 
and  with  more  cordiality  in  Eastern  circles  of  culture. 
In  view  of  the  larger  hearing  that  is  being  granted  to 
Christianity  in  these  latter  times,  one  asks,  What  then  is 
the  significance  for  the  world,  of  the  remarkable  corre- 
spondence that  exists  between  the  best  in  the  Eastern 
Consciousness  and  the  best  in  the  Christian  religion 
itself?  What  would  be  the  ministry  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness  in  a  world-wide  Kingdom  of  Christ  ? 

My  brethren  (if  I  may  have  the  honour  to  address 
you  in  that  term  of  blended  affection  and  respect),  I 

I  II  Cor.  12:4. 


BARROWS  LECTURES 


have  set  before  you  in  outline  the  purpose  that  brings  me 
the  second  time  to  India.  The  prospectus  of  my  argu- 
ment is  in  your  possession.  You  know  my  heart.  I 
have  kept  nothing  back.  Because  you  are  what  you 
are,  possessors,  through  a  proud  and  ancient  ancestry, 
of  that  most  rich  treasure,  the  Oriental  Consciousness, 
I  bring  to  you  a  treasure,  rich,  profound,  sacred,  worthy 
of  your  ancestry,  worthy  of  yourselves.  I  ask  you  to 
examine  it  in  relation  to  yourselves,  looking  upon  it 
as  an  instrument  through  which  you,  gentlemen  of  the 
East,  may  discharge  an  incalculable  service  for  the 
whole  world. 

And  now  may  I  ask  you  to  turn  with  me  to  the  special 
subject  of  this  lecture,  which  is :  ^'  Elements  of  Sublimity 
in  the  Oriental  Consciousness"  ?  I  ought  to  say  that  I 
approach  this  subject  in  no  spirit  of  flattery.  If  any 
have  attributed  such  a  spirit  to  me,  I  desire  to  make 
ingenuous  and  comprehensive  disavowal  of  it.  Among 
men  of  culture  and  sincerity,  approach  in  the  spirit  of 
flattery  arouses,  first  resentment,  then  suspicion.  The 
word  "flattery,''  of  obscure  and  uncertain  origin,  glides, 
with  the  flexibility  of  a  reptile,  through  the  paths  of 
English  literature,  giving  off  now  one  shade  of  meaning, 
now  another,  yet  always  with  connotations  that  awaken 
distrust.  In  its  most  ancient  form  it  stands  for  the 
sinister  instinct  of  certain  animals  that  make  caressing 
motions  just  before  they  strike  their  victim,  as  when 
Chaucer,  in  the  "Merchant's  Tale,"  says:  "Lyk  to 
the  scorpion,  that  flaterest  with  thin  heed,  whan  thou 
will  stynge."'  Now  it  means  the  attempt,  by  insidious 
X815. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      9 

Speech,  to  please  or  win  the  favour  of  another ;  now  it  de- 
notes the  compliment  spoken  with  the  lip  of  insincerity ; 
now  the  effort  to  feed  and  gratify  morbid  self-esteem; 
now  the  unethical  art  of  inspiring  with  hope  on  insuffi- 
cient grounds,  as  Shakspeare  puts  it,  "Hope  doth  flatter 
thee  in  thoughts  unlikely;'"  and  now  it  stands  for  a 
frequent  offence  against  morality,  the  misleading  effort 
to  represent  another  too  favourably,  exaggerating  his 
good  points,  concealing  his  errors.  Against  all  these 
methods  of  playing  fast  and  loose  with  truth,  my  sense  of 
righteousness  revolts :  I  echo  the  vigour  of  Shakspeare's 
protest,  when  he  says,  in  Richard  the  Second,  "He  does 
me  double  wrong  that  wounds  me  with  the  flatteries  of 
his  tongue;"^  and  of  Cowper's,  when,  in  the  "Table 
Talk,"  he  cries :  "  The  lie  that  flatters  I  abhor  the  most."  ^ 
But  it  is  not  flattery  to  make  mention  of  good  in  the 
presence  of  those  in  whom  it  is  supposed  to  exist,  and  to 
direct  their  attention  to  traits  within  themselves  and 
their  race  that  qualify  for  exceptional  service.  Posses- 
sion of  power  is  ground  of  responsibility.  To  have  our 
attention  directed  to  powers  within  us  that  qualify  for 
service  is  not  to  submit  to  the  ignominy  of  flattery,  but 
to  be  admonished  concerning  privilege  and  duty.  In 
the  greatest  of  his  prose  writings,  his  "Plea  to  the  Lords 
and  Commons  of  England  for  the  Liberty  of  Unlicensed 
Printing,"  Milton  says: 

It  is  not  in  God's  esteem  the  diminution  of  His  glory,  when 
honourable  things  are  spoken  of  good  men.  Nevertheless  there 
are  three  principal  things,  without  which  all  praising  is  but  court- 

I  Venus  and  Adonis,  989.  3  Compare  Murray,  English  Dic- 

^  III,  2.  tionary  in  loc. 


lO  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ship  and  flattery.  First,  when  that  only  is  praised  which  is 
solidly  worth  praise ;  next,  when  greatest  likelihoods  are  brought 
that  such  things  are  truly  and  really  in  those  persons  to  whom 
they  are  ascribed;  the  other,  when  he  who  praises,  by  showing 
that  such  his  actual  persuasion  is  of  whom  he  writes,  can  demon- 
strate that  he  flatters  not.^ 

In  speaking  honourably  of  the  Oriental  Conscious- 
ness I  shall  approve  myself,  under  each  one  of  Milton's 
three  canons,  to  be  innocent  of  the  crime  of  flattery.  I 
shall  speak  but  of  that  which  is  in  itself  excellent  and 
"solidly  worth  praise."  I  shall  show  that,  in  so  far  as 
I  am  competent  to  discern  the  elements  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness,  these  excellences  are  there ;  and,  by  the 
force  of  my  appeal  to  these  noblest  elements  in  Indian 
life,  for  their  employment  on  the  side  of  Christianity, 
not  in  India's  interest  alone,  but  unto  the  advancement 
of  the  world,  I  shall  amply  demonstrate  that  I  flatter  not.^ 

Not  less  earnest  than  my  disavowal  of  intention  to 
commit  the  offence  of  flattering  the  East  must  be  my 
answer  to  the  suggestion,  should  it  occur  to  any,  that 
I  am  by  inference  depreciating  Western  thought  and 
sensibility  through  dwelling  upon  the  Elements  of  Sub- 
limity in  the  Oriental  Consciousness.  It  would  be  in- 
deed a  most  untrustworthy  inference  that  words  spoken 
honourably  of  one  must  react  to  the  discredit  of  another. 
If  there  be  sublimity  in  the  soul  of  the  East,  there  is  also 
sublimity,  after  its  own  kind,  in  the  soul  of  the  West. 
The  ardour  of  my  love  and  reverence  for  India  is  not 
obtained  through  any  surrender  of  loyalty  to  the  heritage 
of  ideas  and  traits  vouchsafed  to  me  by  my  father's 

»  C/.  Areopagitica  (ed.  Cassell,  London,  1904),  p.  19. 
2  C/.  ibid. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    1 1 

fathers.  The  patronymic  **  Western  "  carries  with  it  for 
me  immortal  privilege  and  honour.  As,  with  years  and 
research,  I  grow  to  comprehend  the  forces  that  have 
made  the  West  and  are  now  slowly  transforming  its 
civilisation,  '^the  audacious  speculation,  the  bold  ex- 
{  planatory  studies,  the  sound  methods  of  criticism,  the 
free  range  of  the  intellect  over  every  field  of  knowledge," ' 
I  rejoice  to  have  the  humblest  share  in  this  inheritance 
and  pray  to  be  worthy  of  it.  Nor  does  it  appear  to  me  a 
disqualification  for  the  service  which  I  seek  to  render  in 
India,  that  I  have  this  Western  patronymic  and  that  I 
feel  this  love  for  the  sources  whence  my  being  sprang. 
For  by  virtue  thereof  I  acquire,  through  no  merit  of  my 
own,  the  power,  which,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  no 
I  Oriental  can  as  fully  possess — to  stand  apart  from  East- 
I  ern  life  and  thinking,  and,  while  loving  it  truly,  to  esti- 
^  mate  it  judicially.  We  are  so  constituted  as  often  to  be 
incapacitated  for  an  impartial  and  interpretive  judg- 
ment of  our  immediate  conditions  by  the  fact  that  we 
are  immersed  in  those  conditions  and  that  our  personal- 
ity merges  as  an  integral  part  of  them.  Mr.  R.  H. 
Hutton  in  his  Essay  on  M.  Kenan's  Lije  of  Jesus,  when 
speaking  of  the  tender  and  beautiful  dedication  of  the 
book  by  the  author  to  his  dearly  loved  sister,  says: 
''These  are  lines  which  no  man  could  trace  without  a 
deep  conviction  that  his  thoughts  had  been  double-sifted 
through  both  a  clear  intellect  and  a  clear  spirit."^  So 
one  may  say  of  the  attempt  to  estimate  the  most  subtle 

I  C/.     Benj.  Kidd,  Principles  of  2  C/.  Theological  Essays  (3d  ed., 

Western   Civilisation   (ed.    London,       revised;   London,  1888). 
1902)  p.  2. 


12  BARROWS  LECTURES 

and  profound  elements  in  a  specific  form  of  race  con- 
sciousness, for  example,  the  Oriental  Consciousness: 
.no  man  can  trace  these  elements  unless  his  thought  has 
;been  double-sifted  through  both  a  remote  racial  inherit- 
f  ance  and  a  medium  of  love  that  has  removed  all  prejudice 
I  and  left  only  the  desire  to  see  the  truth  and  to  see  it  at 
fits  best. 

To  the  true  citizen  of  the  world,  and  lover  of  his  kind, 
no  occupation  is  more  delightful  than  study  of  the  com- 
mon nature  of  mankind.  Himself  exempt  from  an 
alienating  spirit  of  separation  and  animated  by  human- 
istic aims,  as  his  researches  extend  themselves  to  wider 
fields,  his  heart  glows  with  delight  on  perceiving  the 
vast  unities  of  feeling  and  experience  that  bind  together 
all  the  families  of  earth.  Professor  Tylor  of  Oxford 
says,  in  his  work  on  Primitive  Culture:  ^'Surveyed  in  a 
broad  view,  the  character  and  habit  of  mankind  at  once 
display  that  similarity  and  consistency  of  phenomena 
which  led  the  Italian  proverb-maker  to  declare :  ^ All  the 
world  is  one  country.' " '  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
there  are  souls  that  experience  a  passionate  joy  in  re- 
flecting upon  the  oneness  of  the  human  race.  There  is  a 
type  of  patriotism  broader  than  love  of  one's  nation.  It 
is  world-patriotism.  It  is  marked  by  God  like  catholi- 
city of  affection  toward  the  race;  it  says  with  the  Italian 
proverb-maker:  "All  the  world  is  one  country;"  and 
with  St.  Paul:  "God  hath  made  of  one  all  nations  of 
men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth;"  and  with 
Jesus  Christ:  "I  would  give  my  life  for  the  life  of  the 
world."    To  what  extent  the  East  contains  and  ap- 

I  C}.  4th  ed.,  revised;   London,  1903,  Vol,  I,  p.  6. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    13 

proves  this  spirit  of  world-patriotism,  this  love  of  the 
world  as  one  world,  of  humanity  as  one  race,  I  have  no 
certain  knowledge.  But  that  in  the  West  are  those  for 
whom  this  world-love  has  dissolved  the  ordinary  barriers 
and  created  a  sense  of  universal  kinship  is  true.  I  forget 
not  that  there  are  many  in  that  Western  world  who  in 
spirit  and  word  and  deed  deny  and  oppose  this  senti- 
ment. Some  repudiate  it  with  scorn,  uttering  opinions 
for  which  those  who  have  a  larger  view  of  life  may  well 
rebuke  them  with  honourable  resentment.  Recently 
an  Englishman,  whose  name  I  may  perhaps  without 
impropriety  withhold,  has,  in  the  introduction  to  a  book 
on  Eastern  subjects,  volunteered  the  following  state- 
ments: "An  American  can  never  like  anyone  not  of  his 
own  colour;  he  will  never  mix  on  a  footing  of  equality 
with  any  other."  These  are  idle,  foolish,  graceless 
words;  the  more  regrettable  because  their  author  is  a 
person  of  experience  and  distinction.  So  far  as  they  are 
uncorrected  by  the  spirit  and  life  of  those  whom  they 
misrepresent,  they  add  to  the  long  sad  story  of  that  past, 
which,  as  some  of  us  dare  to  believe,  is  giving  place  to  a 
broader  and  more  worthy  future. 

The  unity  of  the  human  world  is,  to  those  who  are 
animated  by  the  larger  patriotism,  an  exhilarating 
thought.  This  unity  is  accomplished  through  diversity, 
not  through  uniformity.  It  presents  to  us  the  phenome- 
non of  temperamental  and  psychic  variation  worked  out 
upon  a  world-scale.  We  see  the  parable  and  prophecy 
of  this  variation  in  children  of  the  same  parents,  within 
the  small  enclosure  of  a  single  family.  Here  are  two 
brothers  that  were  cradled,  nurtured,  educated  together. 


14  BARROWS  LECTURES 


Sharing  everything  from  infancy,  growing  up  amidst  the 
same  scenes,  beneath  the  same  discipline,  behold  the 
irrepressible  distinctions  that  appear  in  them  from  the 
beginning  and  deepen  with  time.  One  of  these  brothers 
is  full  of  immediacy;  eager,  practical,  self-reliant,  self- 
assertive,  born  for  mastery  of  visible  forces.  The  other 
is  calm,  passive,  indifferent  to  opportunity,  living  in  the 
unseen,  judging  thought  to  be  above  action.  Such,  be- 
neath one  roof,  may  be  the  unlikeness  of  two  lives,  com- 
mon fruit  of  one  parentage.  Yet  together  conceived  of 
as  forming  a  larger  unity,  they  represent  the  totality  of 
sources  that  produced  them.  So,  in  the  greater  family 
of  man,  are  differences  not  more  real  in  fact  but  more 
strongly  developed  by  circumstances.  The  house 
brothers  have  lived  within  the  same  entourage;  garbed 
alike,  toned  by  one  climate,  speaking  one  mother  tongue, 
subdued  to  conventional  similitude  by  the  autocracy  of 
social  custom.  The  race  brothers  have  lived  apart,  as 
far  as  East  from  West.  Separation  and  its  subtle  reac- 
tion, segregation,  insidious  differentia  of  zone  and 
climate,  divergent  traditions,  inertia  of  unrelated  cus- 
toms have  accentuated  their  visible  distinctions.  To  the 
uninstructed  eye  these  race  brothers  seem  to  have  been 
driven  immeasurably  apart;  whereas,  in  fact,  that  is  to 
say  in  spirit,  they  are  not  less  allied  than  two  brothers 
of  opposite  temperaments  housed  beneath  one  roof. 
For  the  race  brothers,  though  physically  and  intellectu- 
ally remote  and  dissimilar,  are  bound  in  the  one  great 
bundle  of  humanity's  life,  and  collectively  they  represent 
the  sum  of  influences  that  have  made  humanity  and 
that  are  essential  to  the  completeness  of  humanity. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS     15 

Beneath  what  I  am  now  saying  lies  a  fundamental 
fact  of  singular  interest.  It  is  the  fact  of  race  conscious- 
ness. Individual  consciousness  is  immediate  knowl- 
edge that  one  has  of  one's  present  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
purposes:  it  is  knowledge,  through  testimony  within 
oneself,  of  impressions,  thoughts,  feelings  that  make  up 
conscious  existence.  Possibly  it  is  this  fact  of  individual 
consciousness  more  than  any  other  fact  that  imparts  a 
certain  mysterious  dignity  to  every  human  life.  As  we 
look  upon  one  another,  we  remember  that,  behind  all 
outward  phenomena  of  speech  or  conduct,  dwells  in 
each,  as  in  a  curtained  shrine,  the  self-knowing  soul, 
holding  counsel  with  itself,  taking  knowledge  of  itself 
inwardly  as  an  entity  separable  from  the  whole  outlying 
universe.  But  this  function  of  individual  consciousness 
is  not  wholly  esoteric  and  impenetrable.  In  a  sense  it 
must  disclose  itself  through  reactions  upon  outward 
personality.  The  saying  of  the  proverb-maker  in  the 
Old  Testament :  "  As  he  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he,"  ^ 
proclaims  one  of  the  most  formidable  laws  of  our  being. 
As  we  know  ourselves  in  the  actuality  of  inward  life,  so, 
as  by  an  irresistible  force  of  self -projection,  we  make 
involuntary  self -revelations  of  our  consciousness,  where- 
by others  who  study  us  closely  may  know  us  as  we  are. 

The  nature  that  is  essentially  untrue,  that  gives  wit- 
ness within  itself  to  fraud  or  corruptness,  or  dark  pas- 
sions of  sinister  ambition,  will,  in  the  course  of  time, 
depict  that  inward  insincerity  in  wavering  eye,  lines  of 
untruth,  or  shadow  of  animalism  upon  the  tell-tale  coun- 
tenance.    The  soul  that  gives  witness  unto  itself  in  the 

I  Prov.  23 : 7. 


l6  BARROWS  LECTURES 

inner  shrine  of  consciousness  to  noble  and  ingenuous 
motive,  to  reverence  for  truth,  to  affiliation  with  God,  to 
honourable  love  for  man,  will  bear  this  witness  out- 
wardly, in  eyes  that  give  forth  the  radiance  of  inward 
light,  in  the  calm  brow  exempt  from  shame,  in  the  charm 
of  righteousness,  which  is  the  white  garment  for  the 
white  soul.  Once,  in  early  days  of  the  Christian  Society, 
certain  Apostles  were  discharging  their  ministry  with 
such  winsome  strength  and  gentleness  that  spectators 
were  astonished,  knowing  them  to  be  unlearned  and 
ignorant  men ;  and  it  is  touchingly  affirmed  by  the  nar- 
rator: "They  took  knowledge  of  them  that  they  had 
been  with  Jesus."'  It  is  an  example  of  the  involuntary 
self -revelations  of  consciousness.  The  thought  of  Christ 
was  filling  the  souls  of  these  men;  in  the  shrine  of 
consciousness  they  knew  themselves  to  be  governed  by 
His  example,  allied  to  His  cause ;  and  what  filled  them 
inwardly  controlled  them  outwardly. 

But,  in  our  study  of  human  life,  we  have  grown  to 
see  that  there  is  race  consciousness,  as  well  as  individual 
consciousness.  That  faculty  which  we  attribute  to 
the  individual,  namely,  recognition  within  itself  of  the 
actuality  of  impressions,  thoughts,  and  feelings  that 
make  up  conscious  being,  we  may  attribute  as  a  collect- 
ive faculty  to  an  aggregate  of  men,  and  speak  of  national 
consciousness,  race  consciousness,  or,  as  in  the  present 
instance.  Oriental  Consciousness  as  distinguished  from 
Occidental  Consciousness.  That  there  should  be  certain 
characteristic  methods  of  thought,  objects  of  interest, 
points  of  view  controlling  Oriental  mentality,  interest- 

I  Acts  4:13.  • 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS     17 

ing  the  Oriental  soul,  and  thereby  distinguishing  it, 
in  a  measure,  from  the  type  of  mentality  and  of  soul- 
interest  common  throughout  the  West,  is  the  fact  that 
has  appealed  to  me  supremely,  that  challenges  my 
closest  attention,  that  brings  me  a  second  time  to  India 
in  the  attempt  to  understand  its  import. 

The  author  of  the  book.  Primitive  Culture,  says: 
"That  a  whole  nation  should  have  a  special  dress, 
special  tools  and  weapons,  special  laws  of  marriage 
and  property,  special  moral  and  religious  doctrines 
is  a  remarkable  fact,  which  we  notice  so  little  because 
we  have  lived  all  our  lives  in  the  midst  of  it."'  Pro- 
fessor Tylor  further  says,  and  the  remark  is  one  full  of 
suggestion  for  my  present  purpose: 

The  quality  of  mankind,  which  tends  most  to  make  the  system- 
atic study  of  civilisation  possible,  is  that  remarkable  tacit  con- 
sensus or  agreement  which  so  far  induces  whole  populations  to 
unite  in  the  use  of  the  same  language,  to  follow  the  same  religion 
and  customary  law,  to  settle  down  to  the  same  general  level  of  art 
and  knowledge.  It  is  this  state  of  things  which  makes  it  so  far 
possible  to  ignore  exceptional  facts,  and  to  describe  nations  by  a 
sort  of  general  average.  There  is  found  to  be  such  regularity  in 
the  composition  of  societies  of  men,  that  we  can  drop  individual 
differences  out  of  sight  and  thus  can  generalise  on  the  arts  and 
opinions  of  whole  nations,  just  as,  when  looking  down  upon  an 
army  from  a  hill,  we  forget  the  individual  soldier,  whom,  in  fact, 
we  can  scarce  distinguish  in  the  mass,  while  we  see  each  regiment 
as  an  organised  body,  spreading  or  concentrating,  moving  in 
advance  or  in  retreat.  ^ 

It  is  well  to  be  assured  by  so  high  an  authority  that 
the  principle  of  generalisation  as  applied  to  nations  is 

'  C/.  op.  cit.j  Vol.  I,  p.  12.  ^  Cf.  ibid,,  pp.  10,  11. 


i8  BARROWS  LECTURES 

scientifically  valid.  For  my  interest  in  these  lectures 
is  founded  on  a  generalisation  far  wider  than  any  sug- 
gested by  the  learned  author  whom  I  have  just  quoted. 
My  present  interest  lies  not  in  the  fact  that  a  whole 
nation  should  have  special  dress,  or  special  tools  and 
weapons,  or  special  laws  of  marriage  and  property; 
not  even  in  the  fact  that  a  whole  nation  should  have 
special  moral  and  religious  doctrines.  Striking  as  are 
these  examples  of  similarity  and  consistency  in  social 
phenomena,  they  are  but  suggestions  of  a  greater  fact, 
the  proportions  of  which  are  as  majestic  as  its  signifi- 
cance for  the  world  is  profound.  It  is  the  fact  of  a 
distinctive  type  of  human  self-realisation  which  I  have 
called  the  Oriental  Consciousness. 

The  East  is  the  home  of  many  nations  differing  one 
from  another  in  language,  in  modes  of  dress,  in  forms 
of  tools  and  weapons,  in  laws  of  marriage  and  property, 
in  moral  and  religious  doctrines.  Like  the  West, 
whether  more  or  less  conspicuously,  the  East  bears  the 
revolutionary  marks  of  time,  its  upheavals,  its  cleavages, 
its  reconstructions.  Yet  the  East  has  a  spirit  that  is 
all  its  own,  a  spirit  that  broods  over  its  multitudinous 
life  like  the  soft  atmosphere  of  gentle  love  not  unmingled 
with  sorrow.  In  that  far-off  land  where  my  home  is, 
amidst  the  beauteous  valleys  and  mountain  ranges 
of  Northern  America,  there  occurs  late  in  the  autumn 
of  each  year  a  phenomenon  that  we  cherish  as  one  of 
the  loveliest  appearances  of  nature.  The  summer  has 
long  since  passed  away;  the  harvests  are  all  garnered, 
the  autumn  is  far  spent,  the  frosts  have  turned  the 
forests  to  colour  masses  of  crimson  and  russet  and  gold. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    19 

the  first  premonitory  blasts  of  winter  have  sounded 
through  the  groves,  heralds  of  ice  and  snow;  when 
suddenly,  for  a  few  brief  days,  there  comes  a  great  calm 
in  heaven  and  on  earth,  a  celestial  armistice.  The  wind 
is  hushed;  the  severity  of  frost  is  withdrawn;  the  sun 
breathes  into  the  atmosphere  fragrance  and  warmth; 
hill  and  vale,  forest  and  river  are  wrapped  together  in 
one  mantle  of  dreamlike  stillness.  Rugged  outlines  of 
nature  are  softened;  the  din  of  cities  is  forgotten;  zest 
of  action  gives  place  to  thought ;  calm  and  holy  sadness 
reigns  amid  the  beauty.  For  a  few  days  this  unwonted 
silence  and  peace  of  nature  continue,  then  the  loud 
challenge  of  the  winter  sounds  and  life  resumes  its  con- 
flict, its  struggles,  its  constructive  toil.  In  our  country 
we  are  wont  to  call  that  hush  of  nature  ^^  Indian  summer." 
Thus  does  one  of  our  own  writers  describe  that  enchant- 
ing yet  pathetic  season:  "The  warm,  late  days  of 
Indian  summer  came  in,  dreamy  and  calm  and  still, 
with  just  frost  enough  to  crisp  the  ground  of  a  morning 
but  with  warm  traces  of  benign  and  sunny  hours  at 
noon."'  The  name  Indian  summer  has  poetic  refer- 
ence to  the  aborigines  of  America.  It  is  interesting 
here  to  remember  that  those  aborigines  were  errone- 
ously called  "Indians"  by  the  Spanish  navigators  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  who,  in  reaching  America,  supposed 
that  they  had  touched  the  shore  of  India.  I  know  of 
nothing  in  nature  that  more  nobly  typifies  the  spirit 
of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  than  that  phenomenon 
of  the  Western  year  which,  as  if  by  prophetic  instinct, 
we  have  called  Indian  summer.     That  brief  period  of 

I  Mrs.  H.  B.  Stowe,  Oldtown,  p.  337. 


20  BARROWS  LECTURES 

repose  in  nature,  of  dreamlike  calm,  of  antithesis  to  the 
stern,  cold,  eager  Western  winter,  of  pathos  that  is  not 
like  grief  but  rather  like  thought  which  lies  too  deep 
for  tears,  suggests  the  mental  atmosphere  which,  not 
for  a  few  brief  days,  but  eternally,  spreads  over  the 
expanse  of  Eastern  life.  The  East  has  known  with 
more  intimacy,  if  it  be  possible,  than  the  West  those 
peace  destroyers — war,  upheaval  of  dynasties,  acute 
forms  of  social  distress.  The  East  has  been  called  more 
often  than  the  West  to  submit  to  injustice,  to  endure 
the  sickness  of  hope  deferred,  to  bow  the  shoulder  to 
burdens  unrighteously  imposed.  Yet  whatever  con- 
tentions and  upheavals  on  the  surface  of  society,  what- 
ever blasts  of  plague  or  famine,  desolating  homes  and 
hearths,  whatever  injustice  or  oppression ;  in  the  upper 
atmosphere  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  there  abides 
the  calm,  the  sadness,  and  the  sunlight  of  an  Indian 
summer  of  the  soul.  Who  can  interpret  it?  Who 
has  the  right  to  attempt  to  interpret  it?  Above  all, 
what  right  have  I,  a  son  of  the  West,  to  essay  that  sacred 
task  ?  I  have  no  right,  unless  it  be  that  love  and  rev- 
erence give  right. 

As  I  draw  near  to  discern  the  elements  of  the  Orien- 
tal Consciousness,  I  find  among  them  those  that  pro- 
duce on  me  impressions  of  sublimity.  Not  without 
reflection  do  I  use  that  term  ^^ sublimity."  It  is  one 
of  the  noblest  of  words.  Like  the  word  ^'flattery"  of 
which  I  spoke  earlier  in  this  lecture,  its  origin  in  our 
English  tongue  is  unknown.  The  ignoble  word  ^'flat- 
tery," like  a  harmful  reptile,  glides  into  the  language 
from  an  undiscovered  nest.     The  august  word  ''sub- 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    21 

limity,"  like  one  of  your  own  Himalayan  mountain 
peaks,  rises  on  the  field  of  English  speech  into  the  upper 
air  of  truth ;  its  summit  crowned  with  light,  its  base  lost 
in  the  haze  of  distance.  It  signifies  that  which  strikes 
the  mind  with  a  sense  of  grandeur  or  power.  The 
invariable  condition  of  the  emotion  of  sublimity  is  vast- 
ness,  power  or  intensity  in  the  objects,  material  or  moral, 
that  produce  it.  I  believe  that  in  the  Occidental  Con- 
sciousness as  well  as  in  the  Oriental  Consciousness 
there  are  elements  of  sublimity.  It  is  not  my  province 
to  deal  with  the  former  in  these  lectures,  but  the  time 
will  come,  I  trust,  when  some  mind,  stronger  and  more 
skilled  than  my  own,  shall  undertake  in  India  an  unpre- 
judiced analysis  of  qualities  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
West,  which,  when  rightly  understood,  when  seen  in 
their  ultimate  relations  to  the  soul,  when  studied  in 
the  spirit  of  love,  may  be  declared,  in  the  high  court  of 
India's  most  critical  opinion,  not  unworthy  to  be  called 
sublime. 

From  that  most  ancient  and  most  complex  psycho- 
logical mystery,  which  I  have  called  the  Oriental 
Consciousness,  I  select  four  elements,  each  of  which 
produces  upon  my  Western  powers  of  apprehension 
the  impression  of  sublimity.  They  are  these :  The  Con- 
templative Life;  The  Fresefice  0}  the  Unseen;  Aspira- 
tion toward  Ultimate  Being;  The  Sanctions  of  the  Past. 
If  I  venture  to  speak  of  these,  it  is  not  with  the  false 
assurance  of  him  who  fancies  that  he  has  mastered  the 
inner  meanings  for  the  East  of  those  things  whereof  he 
speaks,  but  with  reserve  and  modesty  mingled  with 
reverence  and  admiration. 


22  BARROWS  LECTURES 

The  Contemplative  Life  is  the  life  that  is  ruled  by 
thought ;  that  esteems  thought  to  be  the  treasure  whose 
price  is  above  rubies,  the  honourable  portion  for  which 
wealth  and  worldly  power  may  not  be  taken  in  exchange. 
In  the  creation  of  God  the  mind  is  the  most  beautiful 
thing  that  He  has  made.  "He  hath  made,"  says  an 
ancient  writer,  "everything  beautiful  in  his  time.'" 
This  is  true.  Each  object  in  nature,  from  the  most 
minute  to  the  most  mighty,  so  long  as  it  retains  its  nor- 
mal place,  function,  and  form,  retains  inherent  grace 
and  symmetry  which  is  God's  sign-manual  of  beauty 
stamped  upon  every  one  of  His  innumerable  works. 
Each  flower,  each  living  creature,  each  cloud  that  sails 
in  the  sky,  each  star  that  shines  in  the  firmament  is 
clothed  in  the  beauty  of  perfect  workmanship,  perfect 
serviceableness  for  its  appointed  end  of  being.  But 
the  beauty  of  the  mind  is  unique;  there  is  nothing  in 
the  universe  like  it,  save  only  the  Eternal  Mind,  of 
which  it  is  the  offspring  and  reflection.  Star,  cloud, 
living  creature,  flower  are  passive,  limited,  fixed;  un- 
reasoning items  in  the  immense  totality  of  nature.  The 
mind  is  active,  free,  capable  of  wandering  at  its  pleasure 
through  the  whole  universe  and  far  up  into  the  awful 
heights  of  Deity.  The  mind  is  gifted  with  originating 
powers;  it  creates,  and  its  creations,  like  your  own 
Vedas,  may  become  immortal.  The  human  hand  is  an 
extraordinary  adjunct  of  man's  being.  To  what  mul- 
titudinous functions  it  lends  itself,  along  the  various 
avenues  of  action !  To  what  precision  of  movement  it 
may  attain !    Now  it  grasps  the  weapon  of  destruction 

^  Eccles.  3:11. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    23 

or  defence;  now  it  wields  the  implement  of  household 
industry  or  the  tool  of  agriculture;  now  it  shapes  the 
delicate  instrument  of  science;  now  it  lifts  the  brush 
of  the  painter,  the  chisel  of  the  sculptor;  now  it  wakes 
the  voice  of  the  harp  or  the  harmonies  of  the  organ; 
now,  taking  the  pen  of  the  writer,  it  records  history, 
transcribes  poetry,  or  signs  away  the  destinies  of  nations. 
Yet  what  is  the  hand,  with  all  its  splendid  functions, 
but  the  servant  of  the  mind!  Let  the  mind  fail  and 
the  hand  is  impotent.  The  mind  need  not  be  subdued 
by  infelicities  of  earthly  destiny.  So  long  as  conscious- 
ness and  the  true  balance  of  reason  endure,  prosperity, 
adversity,  wealth,  poverty,  pain,  sorrow,  injustice, 
oppression  may  be  kept  in  the  outer  courts  of  our  being, 
nor  ever  permitted  to  control  that  sanctuary  far  within 
where  thought  has  set  its  altar  and  prepared  its  incense. 
^' Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make;  nor  iron  bars  a 
cage.''  Ignoring  the  limitation  of  the  external,  the 
mind,  like  an  untamed  eagle,  spreads  its  pinions  and 
is  off  ^' where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  and  the 
weary  are  at  rest." 

The  Contemplative  Life  is  the  life  that  puts  thought 
above  action,  the  invisible  above  the  visible,  as  the 
major  interest  of  existence:  that  pays  homage  first  to 
the  mind  and  the  things  of  the  mind;  afterward  to  the 
body  and  the  things  of  the  body.  The  life  of  action  is 
not  incompatible  with  the  life  of  contemplation,  but 
subordinate  to  it.  And  especially  is  the  life  of  material- 
istic action  subordinate:  the  struggle  of  competitive 
acquisition,  lust  after  riches,  pride  of  display,  arrogance 
of  possession,  scheming  ingenuity  to  override  the  inter- 


24  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ests  or  the  efforts  of  another,  so  as  to  accumulate  wealth. 
From  this  the  Contemplative  Life  turns  wearily  aside, 
asking  only  to  be  left  at  leisure  to  think  its  way  onward 
to  the  goal  of  God.  May  I  say  that  I  seem  to  have 
found  in  the  East  the  natural  home  of  the  Contemplative 
Life  ?  Its  value,  its  appropriateness  for  man,  its  en- 
nobling harmony  with  man's  nature  and  destiny,  its 
abiding  satisfactions  as  against  feverish  struggle  for 
things  and  short-lived  enjoyment  of  them,  many  in  the 
West  have  known.  And  many  more  in  these  latter 
days,  jaded  with  the  quest  of  the  visible,  are  seeking 
the  path  of  contemplation.  But  behind  you  and  your 
seers  lies  the  long  Indian  summer  of  the  soul,  thousands 
of  years  of  the  Contemplative  Life.  It  has  given  you 
certain  elements  of  personality,  and  certain  qualifica- 
tions for  world-efficiency  which  misguided  imitation 
of  our  Western  ways  could  only  imperil.  You  have 
been  Orientals  since  the  dawn  of  the  world.  Continue 
to  be  Orientals  for  ever,  till  the  world's  last  twilight 
closes  in  the  final  darkness.  Cling  to  the  Contempla- 
tive Life :  your  glorious  heritage,  your  peculiar  strength. 
It  has  given  you  elements  of  personality  of  which  the 
West  stands  in  need  and  shall  one  day  come  seeking 
at  your  hand.  It  has  given  you  repose,  gentleness, 
patience,  gravity,  noble  indifference  alike  to  material 
possession  and  material  privation,  eternal  remembrance 
of  things  that  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him. 

The  Presence  of  the  Unseen  seems  to  me,  as  I  study 
Indian  personality,  to  be  another  element  in  Oriental 
Consciousness  that  is  worthy  to  be  called  sublime. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    25 

Visibility  and  invisibility  are  states  or  conditions  that 
have  played  an  enormous  part  in  the  history  of  human 
thought  and  human  action.  There  have  been  the 
physically  blind,  blind  from  their  mother's  womb,  to 
whom  the  whole  span  of  earthly  being  was  a  problem 
of  invisibility,  unrelieved  by  one  ray  of  light,  or  one 
outline  of  form.  There  have  been  the  mentally  blind, 
in  whom  the  spiritual  eye  was  sealed,  and  for  whom 
the  whole  of  existence  was  to  touch,  to  taste,  to  handle 
palpable  objects  of  a  visible  world.  There  have  been 
the  enlightened,  to  whom  the  visible  was  but  the  porch 
and  entrance  way  to  the  Temple  of  Invisible  Reality. 
Innumerable  companies  of  these  enlightened  have  felt 
that  the  one  unquestionable  Reality  is  invisible;  and, 
holding  this  faith  in  their  several  ways,  some  as  Hindus, 
some  as  Christians,  have  aspired  to  that  end  of  which 
St.  Paul  has  spoken:  "We  look  not  at  the  things  which 
are  seen  but  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen;  for  the 
things  which  are  seen  are  temporal,  but  the  things 
which  are  not  seen  are  eternal.'"'  There  is  an  ancient 
Christian  Creed,  framed  in  Asia  Minor  in  the  fourth 
century,  the  opening  words  of  which  are  these:  "I 
believe  in  One  God,  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  and 
of  all  things,  visible  and  invisible."  This  Creed  of 
Nicaea,  framed  in  what  Europeans  speak  of  as  the 
Nearer  East,  and  affected  by  influences  partly  Eastern, 
partly  Western,  gives  us,  as  it  were,  a  digest  of  the 
religious  consciousness  of  the  world  on  this  subject. 
God  is  regarded  as  the  Maker  of  all  things,  "visible 
and  invisible."     You  are  well  aware  that  the  general 

I  II  Cor.  4:18. 


26  BARROWS  LECTURES 

tendency  of  Western  thinking  is  to  recognise  with  more 
or  less  absoluteness  the  reality  of  the  phenomenal  uni- 
verse with  the  countless  distinctions  of  finite  souls  and 
finite  objects;  a  recognition  which,  I  regret  to  say,  in 
popular  religious  thinking  of  the  West  has  become  at 
times  a  form  of  dualism.  You  are  equally  aware  that 
the  immemorial  thought  of  India  emphasises  the  reality 
of  the  Invisible  Absolute,  while  to  some  extent  admitting 
the  distinction  of  the  individual  soul  and  its  phenomenal 
environment,  but  regarding  it  under  the  terms  "Maya" 
or  "Avidya."  A  very  able  Hindu  writer  in  the  Hindu- 
stan Review  says:  "This  distinction  is  indeed  recog- 
nised in  Higher  Hinduism,  but  in  this  system  it  is 
spoken  of  as  a  mystery  and  receives  the  much  misunder- 
stood name  of  'Maya'  or  'Avidya, '  terms  which  Western 
scholars  readily  but  wrongly  render  into  'illusion.' 
Really,  'Maya'  and  'Avidya'  are  names  of  a  mystery 
which  our  philosophers  clearly  admit  is  inscrutable." 
Without  going  into  this  very  interesting  subject,  which 
I  have  the  greatest  desire  to  investigate  further  under 
competent  Eastern  guides,  my  purpose  in  referring  to 
it  at  all  is  to  point  out  that  the  age-long  tendency  of 
Indian  thinking  to  clothe  itself  in  forms  of  monism 
has  overspread  the  East  with  an  impressive  sense  of 
the  presence  of  the  Unseen.  It  is  not  strange  that  the 
East  has  been  historically  the  birth-place  of  every  one 
of  the  great  religions  of  the  world,  and  the  natural 
fountain  and  origin  of  the  world's  religious  experience. 
That  this  religious  experience  has  undergone  stages 
of  development  with  which  I  personally  could  not  be 
satisfied,  as,  for  example,  in  some  of  the  forms  and 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    27 

phenomena  of  animism,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
seem  to  me  to  have  been  greatly  influenced  from  non- 
Aryan  sources,  is  not  a  matter  germane  to  my  present 
purpose.  I  wish  to  testify  that,  as  I  come  into  the  East 
once  more,  I  am  more  than  ever  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  here  the  presence  of  the  Unseen  is  realised.  That 
fact  is  inherently  sublime.  It  bears  witness  to  the  inde- 
structible seed  of  divinity  within  the  finite  soul.  It  i^ 
the  refusal  of  man  to  be  put  off  with  the  husk  of  physi- 
cal existence,  because  the  eternal  wheat  of  immortality 
is  his  portion.  May  the  day  never  come  when  the  East,' 
inebriated  with  the  wine  of  modern  culture,  and  dazzled 
by  the  appliances  of  modern  civilisation,  shall  move  from 
her  high  seat  of  vision,  forget  her  prophets  of  the  invis- 
ible, barter  her  great  inheritance  in  the  Unseen,  and  bow 
down  before  perishable  idols  of  present-day  materialism, 
unconsecrated  gods  of  a  passing  hour ! 

In  the  Oriental  Consciousness  there  lives  another 
element  of  true  sublimity,  of  which  I  may  not  speak 
save  in  words  measured  and  restrained  by  reverence. 
Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being  is  the  eternal  hunger 
and  hope  in  the  soul  of  the  East.  The  East  may  erect 
temples  and  offer  sacrifices  to  particular  deities;  it 
may  enlarge  its  pantheon  with  deified  saints  and  heroes ; 
it  may  build  up  and  sustain  the  complex  theologies  and 
rituals  which  are  to-day  popular  forms  of  worship  for 
the  multitude.  But  the  sublimity  of  the  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness is  found  in  its  tremendous  outreach  of  desire- 
beyond  these  provisional  forms  and  personages,  yes, 
beyond  all  that  eye  can  discern  or  mind  conceive,  toward 
an  ultimate  and  inscrutable  Reality  of  Being — an  ocean 


28  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  fathomless  life  in  which,  and  in  which  alone,  vexations 
of  the  finite  spirit  are  quenched  in  unutterable  satis- 
faction, lost  in  unimaginable  blessedness.  Words  fail 
me  to  depict  the  sublimity  of  these  conceptions  of  the 
final  solution  of  our  existence,  or  to  measure  the  depth 
and  dignity  of  a  race  consciousness  in  which,  through 
a  thousand  generations,  the  mystical  sense  of  potential 
oneness  with  Ultimate  Being  could  survive  divisive 
tendencies  of  polytheism  and  powerful  antagonisms 
of  dissenting  philosophies.  I  am  not  attempting  to 
pass  any  value-judgment  upon  the  actual  influence  upon 
life  and  character  of  this  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate 
Being.  I  am  not  considering  the  bearing  upon  it  of 
wide  ranges  of  Indian  theological  divergence  touching 
the  personality  or  the  impersonality  of  God ;  I  am  not 
contrasting  it  with  the  Buddhistic  thought-system  of  the 
Farther  East,  wherein  negation  of  existence  supplies  to 
consciousness  a  goal  of  passionless  sublimity.  My 
observations  turn  not  on  the  content  or  tendency  of 
any  of  these  conceptions ;  but  on  their  inherent  grandeur 
and  unworldliness,  on  their  dignity  as  protests  against 
materialism,  on  their  sweep  and  range  like  searchlights 
in  the  sky  above  the  pastures  and  palaces  of  earth,  up- 
ward and  outward  into  unsurveyed  fields  of  higher 
knowledge.  A  great  English  poet,  gazing  on  King's 
College  Chapel,  Cambridge,  wrote:  "They  dreamt  not 
of  a  perishable  home  who  thus  could  build !''  So  may 
one  exclaim  who  considers  the  scale  of  grandeur  on 
which  are  built  these  conceptions  of  Ultimate  Being 
and  these  aspirations,  whether  for  consummation  or 
for  extinction,  that  have  given  wings  of  high  desire  to 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    29 

the  Oriental  Consciousness.  Souls  that  can  erect  such 
fabrics  of  hope,  and  lift  heavenward  such  towers  of 
spiritual  longing  have  proved  themselves  sublime ! 

I  close  this  lecture  with  a  reference  to  one  other 
element  of  sublimity  in  the  Oriental  Consciousness,  of 
which  I  hope  to  speak  at  greater  length  in  the  last  lecture 
of  the  course.  I  refer  to  Eastern  Reverence  for  the 
Sanctions  of  the  Past.  In  the  year  1902,  when  I  was 
first  in  India,  a  suggestive  English  writer,  Mr.  Benja- 
min Kidd,  produced  a  book  under  the  title.  Principles 
of  Western  Civilisation.  Its  purpose  is  to  show  that, 
with  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  there  has  come 
in  Europe  and  America  "si  great  change  in  the  opinions 
and  modes  of  thinking  of  society."  This  change  is  the 
precursor  of  a  period  of  social  and  political  reconstruc- 
tion. It  has  lifted  Western  society  as  a  whole  to  "an 
entirely  different  plane."  It  consists  in  the  fact  that 
all  social  thinking,  in  every  department,  ethics,  poli- 
tics, philosophy,  economics,  religion,  is  passing  from 
under  control  of  the  past  and  is  coming  under  control 
of  the  future. 

It  is  [Mr.  Kidd  affirms]  the  meaning,  not  of  the  relation  of  the 
present  to  the  past,  but  of  the  relation  of  the  present  to  the  future, 
to  which  all  other  meanings  are  subordinate  and  which  controls  all 
the  ultimate  tendencies  of  the  process  of  progress  in  which  the 
West  is  living.  The  theory  of  social  progress  in  the  West  hitherto 
has  been  the  struggle  of  an  ascendant  present  against  a  hindering 
past,  in  short,  a  theory  of  movement  toward  a  fixed  social  and 
pohtical  condition  in  which  the  present  shall  be  completely 
emancipated  from  the  past  in  conditions  in  which  the  gratification 
of  the  desires,  and  the  furtherance  of  the  interests,  of  the  com- 
ponent individuals  shall  have  been  made  as  complete  as  possible. 


30  BARROWS  LECTURES 

But  now  it  is  "  the  shadow  of  the  infinite  future  which 
rests  on  the  process  of  progress.  It  is  to  the  future  and 
not  to  the  past  that  the  theory  of  development  has  now 
become  primarily  related."  What  is  taking  place  in 
the  West  is  ''a  shifting  of  the  centre  of  significance  in 
thought."  As  to  the  immensity  of  the  changes  involved 
by  reason  of  this  shifting,  Mr.  Kidd  does  not,  perhaps, 
overstate  the  matter  in  using  these  strong  words : 

Systems  of  theory  that  have  nourished  the  intellectual  life  of 
the  [Western]  world  for  centuries  have  become  in  our  time  in  large 
part  obsolete.  They  may  retain  for  a  space  the  outward  appear- 
ance of  authority.  But  the  foundations  upon  which  they  rested 
have  been  bodily  undermined.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time  till  the 
ruin  which  has  overtaken  them  will  have  become  a  commonplace  of 
Western  knowledge.^ 

In  the  last  lecture  of  this  course  I  shall  speak  further 
of  this  change  occurring  in  the  West,  the  nature  of  which 
I  regard  Mr.  Kidd  to  have  divined  with  much  sagacity. 
I  shall  try  to  explain  to  you  both  its  peril  and  its  promise. 
When  I  shall  have  done  so,  my  friends,  you  will  under- 
stand why  it  is  that  I  speak  with  emotion  of  that  element 
of  sublimity  in  Oriental  Consciousness  which  I  have 
called  Eastern  Reverence  for  the  Sanctions  of  the  Past. 
I  do  not  discuss  at  the  present  moment  whether  in  all 
respects  your  past,  great  as  it  has  been,  should  be  per- 
mitted to  control  your  present  as  much  as  your  reverence 
allows  it  to  do.  I  do  not  raise  the  question  here  of  how 
far  ^^the  shadow  of  the  future,"  as  Mr.  Kidd  calls  it, 
may  be  invoked  to  fall  upon  you  even  as  already  it  has 
fallen  upon  us.     But  one  thing  I  affirm  with  confidence 

I  Cf.  op.  cU.  (ed.  London,  1902),  pp.  1-12,  194-238. 


SUBLIMITY  IN  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS    31 

and  with  admiration  which  I  do  not  seek  to  disguise: 
the  sublimity  of  that  element  in  the  Eastern  mind  which 
tenaciously,  proudly,  reverently  esteems  its  great  inherit- 
ances, treasures  its  ancestral  classics,  keeps  faith  with 
its  forefathers,  sits  unwearied,  after  three  thousand 
years,  at  the  living  springs  of  its  primeval  hopes.  If 
the  watchword  of  the  West  is  Progress^  the  watchword 
of  the  East  is  Faith! 

Forgive  me.  Gentlemen,  if  in  any  wise  I  have  pre- 
sumed upon  the  right  of  friendship  in  speaking  thus 
ingenuously  and  unguardedly  of  Elements  of  Sublimity 
in  the  Oriental  Consciousness.  If  I  have  committed 
a  fault  in  so  doing,  the  assurance  of  a  generous  motive 
may,  perchance,  be  accepted  as  an  atonement.  I  have 
seen  many  beautiful  things  in  India,  wrought  by  art 
or  conferred  by  Nature;  but  nothing  so  beautiful  as 
these  traits  of  consciousness:  the  Contemplative  Life, 
the  Presence  of  the  Unseen,  Aspiration  for  Ultimate 
Being,  Reverence  for  the  Sanctions  of  the  Past.  You 
have  a  rich  inheritance  of  blessing,  arid,  permit  me  to 
add,  a  solemn  weight  of  responsibility.  In  our  Holy 
Scriptures  we  find  a  pregnant  saying  of  Christ.  I  am 
moved  to  quote  it  as  I  close:  "Unto  whomsoever  much 
is  given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required;  and  to  whom 
men  have  committed  much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the 
more."' 

1  Luke  12:48. 


LECTURE  TWO 

THE  MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION 

With  deep  interest  and  hopefulness  I  approach  the 
subject  of  the  evening,  which  is,  "The  Mystical  Ele- 
ment in  the  Christian  Religion."  My  interest  in  this 
subject  is  the  result  both  of  investigation  and  of  experi- 
ence. My  hopefulness  in  presenting  it  to  this  thought- 
ful assembly  is  grounded  in  the  abundant  evidence 
furnished  by  the  history  of  religion  in  India  that  the 
mystical  element  ever  has  been  and  now  is  esteemed  by 
you  as  precious,  even  as  indispensable.  I  am  not  aware 
of  any  more  direct  and  satisfactory  statement  of  the  truth 
that  lies  at  the  heart  of  my  subject  than  is  contained 
in  words  spoken  some  months  since  by  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  Bombay,  Hon.  Mr.  Justice  Chandavarkar: 
"Religious  life  is  only  possible  when  one  gets  to  the 
centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Himself."  A  whole 
volume  might  amplify,  but  could  not  more  clearly  con- 
vey, the  fundamental  fact  in  mysticism.  I  find  the 
words  quoted  in  one  of  your  very  able  liberal  papers, 
The  Indian  Social  Reformer,  as  part  of  an  address  de- 
livered before  a  Prayer  Union  of  the  Theistic  Church. 
In  the  course  of  his  address  the  honourable  and  learned 
Justice  is  reported  to  have  said,  with  regard  to  the  sim- 
plicity of  true  religion : 

The  sun  rises  every  morning  without  torn  torn  or  noise,  and 
goes  its  regular  rounds  with  patience  and  quietness.     The  flowers, 

32 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    33 

the  blossoms,  the  seasons,  all  come  in  their  proper  time  without 
advertisement.      There  is  quiet  simplicity  about  nature,  which 
is  not  marred  by  even  so  much  as  a  show  of  hurry,  disorder  or 
bustle.     So  also  the  man  of  simple  life  goes  about  his  work  in  the 
most  uncomplaining  way.     He  is  faithful  to  his  Maker.     God 
j  works  in  the  simplest  manner,  and  the  man  who  leads  a  simple  life 
I  imitates  God  in  this  respect.     Simplicity  is  not  ostentatious,  nor 
is  there  any  gorgeousness  about  it.     It  is  neither  showy  nor  dis- 
orderly, but  truthful  and  faithful  to  the  original.     In  order  there- 
fore that  our  Hves  may  become  simple,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
discipline  them.     Religious  life  is  only  possible  when  one  gets  to 
[  the  centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Himself. 

I  trust  that  the  author  of  these  true  and  beautiful 
words  will  not  object  to  have  me  make  them  the  gate- 
way by  which  I  enter  the  subject  to  be  discussed  in 
your  hearing  to-night:  ^^The  Mystical  Element  in  the 
Christian  Religion."  For  it  is  only  by  means  of  this 
discipline  of  simplicity,  this  effort  to  proceed  beyond  the 
formal  and  the  external,  and  to  attain  the  blessed  estate 
|of  a  humble  and  quiet  mind  before  God,  that  anyone, 
by  the  pathway  of  the  Christian  religion,  can  come  to 
I  that  inner,  mystical  experience  of  the  Divine,  which  the 
I  honourable  Justice  has  happily  described,  as  ^^  getting 
to  the  centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Himself." 

One  may  say  that  no  single  phenomenon  of  the 
j  religious  consciousness  has  been  so  universally  shared 
I  by  the  scattered  members  of  the  human  family  as  the 
j  phenomenon  of  mysticism.     It  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
vincing evidences  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  human 
race  that,  in  all  ages  and  in  all  lands,  we  find  the  same, 
characteristic  movement  of  the  religious  consciousness — 
the  effort  ^Ho  get  to  the  centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Him- 


34  BARROWS  LECTURES 

self."  There  is  recorded  a  splendid  utterance  of  Christ 
in  which  He  depicts  a  general,  final  gathering  from  all 
quarters  of  the  earth  of  those  who  shall  be  found  worthy 
to  sit  down  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  "I  say  unto 
you,  that  many  shall  come  from  the  East  and  West 
and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob 
in  the  Kingdom  of  heaven."'  One  seeks  for  some 
common  experience  of  the  religious  consciousness  in 
that  conglomerate  assembly  whereby  it  could  be  uni- 
fied. One  finds  it  in  their  common  mystical  desire, 
originating,  as  has  been  said,  ^^in  that  which  is  the  raw 
material  of  all  religion,  and  perhaps  of  all  philosophy 
and  art  as  well,  namely,  that  dim  consciousness  of  the 
beyond  J  which  is  part  of  our  nature  as  human  beings."^ 
Out  of  that  dim,  rudimentary  consciousness  of  the 
beyond  has  grown  first  the  groping  yearning,  then 
the  deliberate  desire,  then  the  studious  effort,  at  length 
the  glorious  achievement:  ^^to  get  to  the  centre  of  life, 
which  is  God  Himself."  Apparently  every  conceivable 
attempt  has  been  made  to  define  the  nature  and  import 
of  this  action  of  consciousness  in  which  (how  beautiful 
is  the  thought!)  we  taste  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the 
same  experience,  be  we  Occidentals  or  Orientals.  An 
English  scholar  thus  defines  it — and  the  definition  is 
one  that  must,  I  think,  appeal  to  many  of  my  learned 
hearers:  "Mysticism  may  be  defined  as  the  attempt  to 
realise  the  presence  of  the  Living  God  in  the  soul  and  in 
nature ;  or,  more  generally,  as  the  attempt  to  realise,  in 
thought  and  feeling,  the  immanence  of  the  temporal  in 

1  Matt.  8:  II. 

2  Cf.  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism  (ed.  London,  1899),  p.  5. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    35 


the  eternal  and  of  the  eternal  in  the  temporal/"  that  is 
to  say,  the  attempt  to  realise  our  abiding  in  the  Living 
God,  and  the  abiding  of  the  Living  God  in  us. 
A  German  scholar  thus  speaks: 

Mysticism  is  the  immediate  feeling  of  the  unity  of  the  self 
with  God.  It  is  nothing  therefore  but  the  fundamental  feehng  of 
religion,  the  religious  life  at  its  very  heart  and  centre.  But  what 
makes  the  mystical  a  special  tendency  inside  religion  is  the 
endeavour  to  fix  the  immediateness  of  the  Hfe  in  God  as  such, 
and  find  a  permanent  abode  in  the  abstract  inwardness  of  the  life 
of  pious  feeling.  2 

Here  is  the  testimony  of  a  Scotch  scholar: 

Mysticism  is  a  phase  of  thought,  or  rather  perhaps  of  feeling, 
that  appears  in  connection  with  the  endeavour  of  the  human  mind 
to  grasp  the  Divine  essence,  or  the  ultimate  reality  of  things,  and  to 
enjoy  the  blessedness  of  actual  communion  with  the  highest.  God 
cgases  to  be  an  object,  and  becomes  an  experience. 3 

And  here  is  the  corroborating  voice  of  a  great  scholar  of 
Northern  Africa  centuries  ago: 

Oh !  God,  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  our  souls  are 
restless  till  they  rest  in  Thee.4 

Thus,  approaching  by  many  paths,  the  world's 
seekers  after  the  higher  things  are  drawn  to  a  common 
centre  and  find  a  common  basis  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing, standing  upon  which  in  the  spirit  of  love  they  be- 
come intelligible  to  one  another  and  each  is  able  to 
comprehend  and,  if  it  may  so  be,  to  appropriate  the 
contribution  that  the  other  is  prepared  to  make,  whether 

I  C/.  Inge,  op.  ciL,  p.  5.  3  Seth,  in  loc. 

a  Cj.  Pfleiderer,  in  loc.  4  C}.  Augustine,  in  loc. 


36  BARROWS  LECTURES 

to  theory  or  to  experience.  I  shall  find  no  opponent  in 
India  when  I  affirm  that  the  noblest  effort  man  is  capable 
of  making  and  the  most  exalted  experience  man  is  capa- 
ble of  assimilating  are,  alike,  connected  with  the  funda- 
mental fact  of  mysticism.  And  to  this  I  attribute  the 
eternal  freshness  and  charm  of  the  great  mystical  con- 
ceptions: the  abiding  of  our  souls  in  the  Living  God,) 
(  and  the  abiding  of  the  Living  God  in  us.  These  ideas 
I  possess  immortal  newness,  immortal  power  of  delight) 
They  return  to  our  spirits  like  the  celestial  calm  of  even- 
ing after  a  day  of  toil  and  struggle.  In  the  fierce  en- 
counters of  noon-day,  in  the  strife  of  tongues,  in  the 
chafing  of  life's  burden  upon  the  shoulders,  our  heart 
was  heavy.  But  now  the  day  of  labour  is  ended;  the 
dust  of  traffic  falls  away,  and  with  it  the  galling  mem- 
ory of  trouble.  "With  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil 
conscience  and  bodies  washed  with  pure  water,''  we 
rest  in  the  shadow  of  evening  as  in  the  secret  place  of  the 
Most  High.  Calmness,  coolness,  the  soft  light  of  stars 
speak  to  us  day  by  day,  year  by  year,  the  message  of 
refreshment  that  never  grows  old.  So  comes  back  to 
us  for  ever,  as  we  proceed  along  life's  pathway,  bearing 
the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  the  ineffable  refresh- 
ment of  our  life  in  God  and  His  Life  in  us.  Dimly  and 
partially  we  may  have  discerned  it,  our  eyes  being  holden 
through  fear  or  sin  or  ignorance ;  timidly  and  doubtingly 
we  may  have  tasted  it,  our  hand  dreading  to  lift  so  fair  a 
chalice  to  the  lip;  yet  we  have  seen  enough  to  know 
that  this  is  the  True  Light  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world;  we  have  tasted  enough  to 
know  that  this  is  the  Living  Water,  of  which,  if  a  man 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   37 

drink,  he  shall  never  thirst.     Beautifully  did  another 
Scotchman  say: 

It  is  the  peculiar  gift  of  these  mystical  thoughts  that  they  lie 
at  the  basis  of  all  systems  of  theology,  and  appeal  with  a  strange 
certainty  to  men  and  women  who  humbly  seek  to  follow  the  Mas- 
ter along  many  a  path.  The  systems  are  born,  grow  old  and 
perish;  but  the  mystical  theology  is  immortal  and  omnipresent. 
"You  may  to-day,"  says  Maurice  Maeterlinck,  "pass  through 
the  infirmaries  of  the  human  soul,  where  truths  once  young  and 
beautiful  come  to  die,  and  you  will  not  find  a  single  mystical 
thought  there.  For  the  truths  of  mysticism  do  not  grow  old 
and  die."^ 

It  is  my  privilege  to  speak  to-night,  and  in  my  next 
tvi^o  lectures,  of  some  of  these  ever-young  and  inherently 
immortal  truths  of  mysticism,  as  they  are  found  and 
expressed  in  the  Christian  religion.  As  I  essay  to  do  so, 
I  remember  that  while  the  mystical  attitude,  which  is 
the  aspiration  of  the  soul  for  immediate  access  to  God, 
has  been  more  universally  shared  by  the  scattered  mem- 
bers of  the  human  family  than  any  other  phenomenon 
of  the  religious  consciousness,  it  has  not  failed  to  en- 
counter its  opponents  and  its  foes,  who  have  raised 
against  it  formidable  objections.  It  is  germane  to  my 
present  purpose  to  note  two  classes  of  objections  that 
have  been  raised  against  the  mystical  attitude:  those 
directed  in  general  against  the  primary  assumption  that 
direct  contact  of  the  human  spirit  with  the  Divine 
Spirit  is  possible,  in  the  form  of  experiences  that  pro- 

I  C/.  T.  M.  Lindsay,  Introduc-      Johann  Tauler  (Glasgow,   Bryce 
tion  to  Golden   Thoughts  from  the       &  Son,  n.  d.). 
Book  of  Spiritual  Poverty,   by  Dr. 


38  BARROWS  LECTURES 

duce  higher  knowledge  than  is  attainable  through  the 
senses ;  and  secondly,  those  objections  that  are  directed 
in  particular  against  that  form  of  mysticism  which 
is  most  characteristic  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness: 
namely,  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being.  A  few 
words  concerning  each  of  these  classes  of  objections 
cannot  fail  to  help  us  to  better  mutual  understanding 
of  the  subject  before  us  this  evening :  the  Mystical  Ele- 
ment in  the  Christian  Religion. 

A  general  objection  against  the  primary  assumption 
involved  in  the  mystical  attitude  has  been  made  by  many 
modern  scholars,  and  continues  to  be  made  in  high 
quarters  of  Western  intellectualism.  That  primary  as 
sumption  is  that  the  human  spirit  has  both  the  right  and 
the  power  to  come  into  immediate  relations  with  God, 
wherein  knowledge  is  attained,  joy  is  experienced,) 
strength  is  born.  This  knowledge,  joy,  and  strengthi 
are  of  a  degree  and  of  a  kind  that  come  not  through 
ordinary  operations  of  the  senses,  which  go  out  as  our 
agents  into  the  phenomenal  world,  gather  their  impres- 
sions there  and  report  them  back  for  classification  and 
application  by  the  rational  faculty.  In  other  words, 
the  first  principle,  the  Magna  Charta  of  mysticism,  is 
that  you  and  I,  being  in  our  spirits  the  offspring  of  God, 
may  attain  communion  with  Him  that  is  not  mediated 
by  Churches,  institutions,  ceremonies,  and  priests,  but 
is  direct  and  absolute ;  we  abiding  in  Him,  He  abiding 
in  us.  Here,  on  the  threshold  of  mysticism,  strong  ob- 
jectors armed  with  strong  objections  are  planting  them- 
selves. Examples  should  be  given  on  the  nature  of 
these  objections  in  view  of  the  responsible  sources 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  39 

whence  they  proceed.''  In  his  book  on  Degeneration 
Professor  Nordau  appears  to  identify  all  mysticism  with 
more  or  less  acute  disorders  of  the  brain.     He  says: 

The  word  mysticism  describes  a  state  of  mind  in  which  the 
subject  imagines  that  he  perceives  or  divines  unknown  and  inexpli- 
cable relations  among  phenomena,  discerns  in  things  hints  at 
mysteries,  and  regards  them  as  symbols  by  which  a  dark  power 
seeks  to  unveil,  or  at  least  seeks  to  indicate,  all  sorts  of  marvels.  It 
is  always  connected  with  strong  emotional  excitement.  Unre- 
stricted play  of  association,  the  result  of  an  exhausted  or  degenerate 
brain,  gives  rise  to  mysticism.  Since  the  mystic  cannot  express 
his  cloudy  thoughts  in  ordinary  language,  he  loves  mutually 
exclusive  expressions.  Mysticism  blurs  outlines,  and  makes  the 
transparent  opaque.^ 

I  need  hardly  point  out  how  wide  of  the  mark  are 
these  words,  as  a  characterisation  of  true  mysticism. 
What  they  describe  is  brain  lesion,  cerebral  fever,  patho- 
logical ecstasy.  They  have  nothing  in  common  with 
the  thought  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Christian  mys- 
tics, St.  Paul,  who  was  also  one  of  the  most  sane  and 
efficient  labourers  for  his  fellow-men :  ^^  I  live ;  yet  not  I, 

(but  Christ  liveth  in  me;  and  the  life  which  I  now  live 
in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  Who 
loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me."^  They  have 
nothing  in  common  with  the  mysticism  of  Christ,  as 
|He  says:   ''Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 

1 1  am  under  obligation  here  and  Mysticism;"  and  for  his   "List    of 

elsewhere  to  Rev.  William  Ralph  Definitions    of    "Mysticism"     and 

Inge,  M.A.,  formerly   Fellow   and  "Mystical  Theology"  in  Appendix  A 

Tutor  of  Hertford  College,  Oxford,  of  that  work. 


Op.  cit. 


now  Vicar    of    All    Saints,   Ennis- 

more  Gardens,  London,  for  valuable 

suggestions  contained  in  his  Bamp-  3  Gal.  2 :  20. 

ton  Lectures  (1899)   on  "Christian 


40  BARROWS  LECTURES 

see  God.'^'  Another  objector  of  distinction  is  Professor 
Hermann,  whose  words  are  of  more  force,  in  the  prem- 
ises, than  those  of  Professor  Nordau  inasmuch  as 
they  approach  nearer  to  an  apprehension  of  the  true 
mysticism,  while  involving  a  no  less  strenuous  denial 
of  its  validity. 

The  essence  of  mysticism  [says  Hermann]  lies  in  this:  when 
the  influence  of  God  upon  the  soul  is  sought  and  found  solely  in  an 
inward  experience  of  the  individual;  when  certain  excitements  of 
the  emotions  are  taken,  with  no  further  question,  as  evidence  that 
the  soul  is  possessed  by  God;  when  at  the  same  time  nothing 
external  to  the  soul  is  consciously  and  clearly  perceived  and  firmly 
grasped;  when  no  thoughts  that  elevate  the  spiritual  life  are 
aroused  by  the  positive  contents  of  an  idea  that  rules  the  soul — 
then  that  is  the  piety  of  mysticism.  Mysticism  is  not  that  which  is 
common  to  all  religion,  but  a  particular  species,  namely  a  piety 
which  feels  that  which  is  historical  in  the  positive  religion  to  be 
burdensome,  and  so  rejects  it. 

It  would  seem  impossible  to  make  a  more  thorough- 
going misinterpretation  of  the  inherent  qualities  of  a 
force  which,  above  all  others,  has  determined  the  course 
of  religious  history  and  generated  the  apostles  of  every 
great  faith.  Objectors  like  these  and  many  others  that 
I  might  cite  appear  to  be  governed  by  a  private  concep- 
tion of  the  nature  of  the  human  soul  and  of  its  normal 
modes  of  consciousness.  The  equivalent  of  religion, 
for  them,  appears  to  be  a  phenomenon  independent  of 
God  (I  shall  not  call  it  atheistical),  which  ignores  the 
soul's  relationship  to  God,  and  sweeps  away  as  unwhole- 
some, if  not  irrational,  those  activities,  aspirations,  and 
states  of  experience  which  arise  out  of  and  are  the  essen- 

iMatt.  5:8. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  41 

tial  concomitants  of  that  relationship.  Nothing  is  left, 
so  far  as  one  can  see,  for  those  who  persistently  disown 
/man's  perpetual  and  unconquerable  conviction  that  he 
/can,  in  spirit,  be  directly  connected  with  the  Eternal 
Consciousness  and  Will,  but  what  has  been  accurately 
described  by  Pfieiderer  as  an  ^^irreligious  moralism." 
It  is  well  for  us  to  remember  that  there  are  these  object- 
ors to  that  which  seems  to  us,  my  brethren,  our  most 
sacred  and  inalienable  possession,  the  right  of  access  to 
God,  and  of  God's  access  to  us,  without  intermediary. 
The  great  service  rendered  to  us  by  these  objectors  is 
to  put  us  on  our  guard  in  the  exercise  of  our  precious 
right;  that  there  be  no  shadow  cast  upon  the  purity 
and  rationality  of  our  mysticism ;  that  there  be  nothing 
in  it  to  justify  these  criticisms;  nothing  unseemly, 
nothing  pathological  or  of  the  nature  of  madness; 
nothing  inconsistent  with  personal  morality,  and  the 
higher  grade  of  social  efficiency. 

In  addition  to  this  general  objection  lodged  against 
the  whole  phenomenon  of  mysticism  I  wish  also  to  take 
account  of  that,  which  in  particular,  is  directed  against 
the  form  of  mysticism  most  characteristic  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness:  namely.  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate 
Being.  This  I  have  described  in  my  last  lecture  as 
^^the  eternal  hunger  and  hope  in  the  soul  of  the  East,'* 
and  I  have  referred  to  it  as  one  of  the  elements  of  sub- 
limity in  the  Oriental  Consciousness.  Remembering 
these  allusions,  you  will  not  mistake  the  spirit  in  which 
I  speak  of  this  matter.  If  I  may  adopt  the  language 
of  one  of  your  own  countrymen,  whom  I  know  well 
personally  and  who  has  written  extensively  in  the  field 


42  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  philosophical  Hinduism,  the  nature  of  this  aspiration 
is  "to  see  the  formless  Being  of  the  Deity,  in  the  regions 
of  pure  consciousness  beyond  the  veil  of  thought."' 
Advancing  to  this,  one  passes  beyond;  coming  out,  as 
it  were,  on  the  farther  side  of  knowledge  in  regions 
where  all  distinctions  vanish,  where  the  bondage  of 
ignorance  at  length  is  broken,  and  the  soul,  which  is 
distinct  from  mind,  body,  and  all  else,  realises  that 
emancipation  as  the  reward  of  intellectual  labour.  In 
this  aspiration  I  have  found,  as  I  shall  explain  more 
fully  in  a  later  lecture,  one  of  the  secrets  of  sublimity 
in  Eastern  Consciousness;  yet  at  the  same  time  I  can 
understand  and  feel  the  force  of  objections  brought 
against  this  manner  of  thinking  by  minds  so  powerful 
and  so  incapable  of  animosity  that  none  here  would  wish 
to  discredit  their  value-judgments.  These  objections 
are  of  various  kinds:  some  object  to  the  trend  of  this 
mystical  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being,  because  it 
involves  deliberate  aversion  of  the  mind  from,  and  shut- 
ting of  the  eyes  against,  external  things,  persons,  and 
movements,  through  which,  it  is  claimed,  God  has 
spoken  quite  as  impressively  as  through  His  subjective 
disclosures  in  the  individual  consciousness.  The  soul 
thus  becomes  shut  in  upon  itself:  deprived,  through 
deliberate  self -seclusion,  of  innumerable  influences 
that  would  tend  to  chasten,  enrich,  and  illuminate  it. 
.Through  this  privation  it  is  made  to  diminish,  as  it 
Were,  in  volume  and  opulence  of  experience,  to  miss  the 
fleeper  secret  of  its  own  personality,  which  lies  in  its 
profound  interrelation  with  other   personalities,  and 

I  Sri  Parananda  {nom-de-plume). 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  43 

SO  actually  to  lose,  instead  of  gain,  the  goal;  to  reach 
which,  namely,  full  knowledge  of  God,  it  has  given  up 
all  else.  I  am  well  aware  of  the  answer  you  would 
naturally  make  to  this  objection,  nevertheless  it  is  one 
that  has  occurred  to  a  great  number  of  strong  minds  in 
sympathy  with  mysticism;  and  the  more  precious  we 
esteem  any  truth  to  be,  the  more  wise  are  we  to  weigh 
all  that  can  be  said  against  it,  as  well  as  in  its  favour. 

Another  objection  brought  against  Eastern  Aspira- 
tion toward  Ultimate  Being  is  that  the  logic  of  negation, 
which  is  the  process  of  approach,  under  this  system  of 
thinking,  to  the  metaphysical  Absolute,  or  God,  not  only 
empties  God  but  empties  the  soul  of  those  qualities 
which  our  best  natural  instincts  teach  us  to  admire,  to 
love,  and  to  retain.  This  objection,  which  certainly  is 
one  not  unworthy  of  notice,  is  stated  concisely  and  with 
force  by  a  member  of  the  University  of  Oxford : 

Let  me  try  [says  the  writer]  to  state  the  argument  and  its  con- 
sequences in  a  clear  form.  Since  God  is  the  Infinite,  and  the 
Infinite  is  the  antithesis  of  the  finite,  every  attribute  which  may  be 
affirmed  of  a  finite  being  may  be  safely  denied  of  God.  Hence 
God  can  only  be  described  by  negatives;  He  can  only  be  discovered 
by  stripping  off  all  the  qualities  and  attributes  which  veil  Him;  He 
can  only  be  reached  by  divesting  ourselves  of  all  the  distinctions  of 
personality,  and  sinking  or  rising  into  our  uncreated  nothingness; 
and  He  can  only  be  imitated  by  aiming  at  an  abstract  spirituality, 
the  passionless  ''apathy"  of  an  universal  which  is  nothing  in  par- 
ticular.^ 

In  my  next  two  lectures  I  shall  have  occasion  to  refer 
repeatedly  to  this  subject,  which  has  so  enormously 
influenced  Eastern  religious  consciousness,  and  to  show 

I  C/.  Inge,  op.  cit.,  p.  iii. 


44  BARROWS  LECTURES 

wherein  lies  its  essential  sublimity,  although  the  existing 
form  and  implications  of  this  yearning  for  knowledge  of 
Ultimate  Being  are  open  to  the  objections  that  I  have 
cited. 

Of  one  other  objection  I  must  speak  in  order  to  do 
justice  to  this  part  of  my  subject.  It  is  objected  that 
concentration  of  the  mind  upon  salvation  to  be  accom- 
plished through  higher  esoteric  knowledge  reacts  un- 
favourably upon  the  moral  sense  of  the  individual, 
makes  him  indifferent  to  the  actuality  of  right  and 
wrong,  causes  an  ethical  colour-blindness  to  steal  upon 
him,  thereby  striking  a  double  blow  at  his  usefulness 
and  also  at  his  happiness.  To  what  extent,  if  any,  this 
objection  is  well  founded  I  am  not  now  intending  to 
discuss.  Certainly  I  am  not  prepared  to  affirm,  hastily, 
that  the  judgment  is  well  founded.  Professor  Deussen 
of  Keil,  in  his  recent  work'  on  The  Philosophy  of  the 
UpanishadSy  a  work  which,  Indians  will  agree,  seems 
to  be  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  a  chivalrous  seeker  after 
truth,  has  taught  all  Europeans  who  are  teachable,  not 
to  pronounce  hasty  judgments  on  systems  of  thought, 
the  real  significance  of  which,  both  intellectually  and 
ethically,  is  only  just  beginning,  if  indeed  it  be  already 
begun,  to  be  understood  by  the  mind  of  the  West.  Yet 
obviously,  this  objection,  lodged  as  it  is  on  the  ground 
of  ethics,  is  one,  the  validity  of  which  ought  not  to  go 
unchallenged  by  men  of  integrity  and  honour.  And  if 
it  were,  even  in  the  least  degree,  valid,  the  willing  alter- 
ation of  whatsoever  in  the  system  of  philosophy  was 

I  English  translation  by  Rev.  A.  S.  Geden,  M.A.  (Edinburgh,  T.  and 
T.  Clark,  1906). 


M  YSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  45 

found  to  militate  against  ethics  would,  I  am  sure,  be 
merely  the  disclosure  of  one  more  of  the  elements  of 
sublimity  that  enrich  Indian  Consciousness.  It  would 
be  worthy  of  the  heroism  which  Christ  commends  when 
He  bids  us  to  detach  ourselves  even  from  our  most 
cherished  possessions  if  they  be  found  to  impinge  on 
the  domain  of  righteousness.  "If  thy  right  hand,"  He 
says,  "causeth  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off,  and  cast  it 
from  thee."'  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  dwell  longer 
upon  these  objections,  brought  from  various  sources, 
against  mysticism  in  general,  and  the  Oriental  mysticism 
of  higher  knowledge  in  particular.  They  serve  to  show 
us  the  responsibilities  that  attach  to  every  great  posses- 
sion ;  they  admonish  us  to  hold  that  possession  in  such 
singleness  of  mind  and  purpose  before  God  that  it  shall 
never  be,  to  us,  or  any  other,  "a  stone  of  stumbling  and 
rock  of  offence." 

And  now,  with  increased  happiness,  because  of  the 
privilege  of  establishing  closer  correspondence  with 
your  minds  through  these  communings  upon  the  gen- 
eral aspects  of  that  which  to  every  one  of  us  is  so 
dear,  namely,  the  belief  that  we  can  know  God  directly 
and  abide  in  Him  and  He  in  us,  I  present  before  you 
some  aspects  of  the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian 
Religion.  I  do  so  from  the  point  of  view  that  Christian- 
ity is  an  Eastern  religion  and  the  Bible  a  Sacred  Book 
of  the  East.  The  other  day  I  was  conversing  at  Oxford 
with  a  Sinhalese  friend  of  mine  who  said:  "I  read  the 
Bible  with  ever  fresh  appreciation  that  it  is  a  truly 

»  Matt.  5 :  30. 


46  BARROWS  LECTURES 

Oriental  book.  In  it  breathe  the  calm,  the  depth,  the 
simplicity  of  the  East.  Orientals  can  surely  under- 
stand the  Bible,  for  it  is  a  book  that  has  issued  out  of 
their  own  life."  I  was  much  struck  with  this  remark  of 
my  friend,  especially  because  since  visiting  the  East 
four  years  ago,  and  coming,  in  sweet  affection,  near  to 
the  mode  of  thinking  and  feeling  that  governs  Eastern 
minds  and  hearts,  I  have  read  my  Bible  with  new  intel- 
ligence and  fresh  delight.  I  place  it  now  in  its  natural 
atmosphere.  Its  birth-place  is  near  the  palm  trees  and 
the  wells.  To  me  it  is  now  and  evermore  an  Oriental 
book.  Furthermore,  as  I  consider  how  this  Eastern 
book  and  its  Faith  have  dominated  the  life  of  the  West 
and  fertilised  its  highest  ideals,  I  marvel  yet  more  at  the 
sublimity  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness,  and  the  manner 
in  which  this  Bible,  the  God-inspired  fruit  and  outcome 
of  the  Oriental  Consciousness,  has  given  evidence,  by 
its  power  over  and  assimilation  with  the  West,  of  the 
essential  unity  of  the  human  race. 

To  trace  the  history  of  Christian  mysticism,  even  in 
its  elementary  outlines,  would  be  a  work  far  exceeding 
in  volume  the  time  at  my  disposal.  I  could  show,  if 
there  were  time,  that  the  mystical  element  obtains 
perpetually  in  Christian  thought.  Its  objectors  arise, 
utter  their  protests  or  their  admonitions,  and  pass  away. 
The  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion,  ^^a 
tide  too  full  for  sound  or  foam,"  rolls  onward  in  majes- 
tic stillness.  The  banks  amid  which  the  river  rolls 
change  their  aspect  from  time  to  time.  Now  they  are 
high  and  rugged  with  the  severities  of  asceticism;  now 
dim  and  silent  as  with  embowering  forests,  where  Ori- 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   47 

ental  contemplation  finds  its  way  to  the  feet  of  Christ; 
now  broad,  open  and  sunny,  where  mysticism  identifies 
itself  with  the  service  of  humanity,  and  after  the  pattern 
of  Christ,  the  Divine  Mystic,  goes  about  doing  good. 
But  the  river  is  the  same;  its  voluminous  current,  know- 
ing no  ebb  or  shallow  for  two  thousand  years,  is  the 
outflow  of  the  strong  desire  of  innumerable  souls,  of  all 
nations  and  kindreds  and  peoples  and  tongues,  "  to  get 
to  the  centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Himself,"  manifested 
in  the  Eternal  Christ. 

It  may  be  said,  with  truth,  that  Christian  mysticism 
has  found  expression  in  two  spheres  of  consciousness, 
objective  and  subjective.  In  the  objective  sphere  of 
consciousness  the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian 
Religion  has  felt  God  present  in  His  world,  has  come 
to  Him  in  His  works;  has  touched,  if  one  may  say  so, 
the  hem  of  His  garment,  in  an  intense  perception  of  the 
universe  as  an  outward  expression  of  the  infinite  vitality 
of  God.  Those  of  you  who  know  the  poetry  of  Words- 
worth will  recall  in  his  works  examples  of  feeling,  pene- 
trated with  the  sense  of  immediate  communion  with 
Deity,  awakening  by  holy  hours  of  silence  amidst  moun- 
tains and  lakes,  and  under  the  spell  of  the  evening  star. 
I  know  no  more  passionate,  perhaps  no  more  lofty, 
expression  of  Christian  mysticism  on  the  objective  side 
than  the  utterance  of  Charles  Kingsley: 

The  Great  Mysticism  is  the  belief  which  is  becoming  every  day 
stronger  with  me,  that  all  symmetrical  natural  objects  are  types 
of  some  spiritual  truth  or  existence.  When  I  walk  the  fields  I  am 
oppressed  now  and  then  with  an  innate  feeling,  that  everything  I 
see  has  a  meaning,  if  I  could  but  understand  it.    And  this  feeling 


48  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  being  surrounded  with  truths  which  I  cannot  grasp  amounts  toj 
indescribable  awe  sometimes.  Everything  seems  to  be  full  of| 
God's  reflex,  if  we  could  but  see  it.  Oh !  how  I  have  prayed  to 
have  the  mystery  unfolded,  at  least  hereafter !  To  see,  if  but  for 
a  moment,  the  whole  harmony  of  the  great  system !  To  hear  once 
the  music  which  the  whole  universe  makes  as  it  performs  His  bid- 
ding !  Oh !  that  heaven !  The  thought  of  the  first  glance  of  crea- 
tion from  thence,  when  we  know  even  as  we  are  known !  And  He, 
the  glorious,  the  beautiful,  the  incarnate  Ideal  shall  be  justified  in 
all  His  doings,  and  in  all  and  through  all  and  over  all !  Have  you  i 
not  felt  that  your  real  soul  was  imperceptible  to  your  mental  vision 
except  at  a  few  hallowed  moments?  that  in  every-day  life  the 
mind,  looking  at  itself,  sees  only  the  brute  intellect,  grinding  and 
working;  not  the  Divine  particle,  which  is  life  and  immortality 
and  on  which  the  Spirit  of  God  most  probably  works,  as  being 
most  cognate  to  Deity  ?  ^ 

This  is  true  Christian  mysticism  on  the  objective 
side.  It  is  also  singularly  allied  to  some  states  of  the 
Oriental  Consciousness,  especially  where  he  discrimi- 
nates between  the  soul  and  the  mind.  Had  some  of  his 
expressions  concerning  personality  behind  nature  been 
given  by  an  Oriental,  one  might  connect  them  with  the 
cult  of  animism  that  sees  in  rock  and  tree  and  bird  and 
flower  the  haunt  of  spirits  and  deities,  amidst  whom 
the  traveller  moves  warily.  So  Kingsley  cries :  "When 
I  walk  the  fields,  I  am  oppressed  now  and  then  with  an 
innate  feeling,  that  everything  I  see  has  a  meaning,  if  I 
could  but  understand  it.  Everything  seems  to  be  full 
of  God's  reflex,  if  we  could  but  see  it."  The  outward 
resemblance  of  these  states  of  consciousness  exists; 
that  of  the  animistic  believer,  that  of  the  Christian 

I  C/.  his  Letters  and  Memories  of  his  life  (ed.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  and 
Co.,  London,  1884),  p.  28. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  49 

nature-mystic.  Yet  profound  is  their  difference.  The 
Christian  walks  through  Nature  with  awe  but  without 
uncertainty.  He  dreads  not  the  haunting  presence  of 
strange  and  incalculable  spirits,  against  whose  enmity 
or  craft  he  must  protect  himself.  The  Spirit  Whose 
presence  he  feels  about  him  is  his  Friend,  "Whose 
Nature  and  Whose  Name  is  Love."  With  Kingsley  he 
cries:  "It  is  He,  the  glorious,  the  beautiful,  the  Incar- 
nate Ideal,  Who  shall  be  justified  in  all  His  doings,  and 
in  all  and  through  all  and  over  all."  With  St.  Paul  he 
looks  untroubled  on  the  mystery  of  Nature  and  of  life, 
saying:  "I  know  Him  Whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  guard  that  which  I  have 
committed  unto  Him."' 

This  objective  sense  of  God  is  but  the  vestibule  of 
the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion.  The 
temple  is  within.  Unseen  of  men  is  the  secret  place  of 
the  Most  High,  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  in  which  the 
Christian  mystic  attains  the  homing  of  the  soul.  In  the 
true  mysticism  of  Christian  experience  the  sense  o' 
God's  presence  and  of  contact  with  Him  in  the  visible 
world  has  its  fulfilment  and  verification  in  the  sanctuary 
of  the  inner  consciousness,  in  the  sublimity  and  the 
peace  of  esoteric  and  immediate  knowledge  of  God. 
If  we  remain  only  in  the  outer,  the  objective  sense  of  the 
Divine,  whether  realised  in  Nature  or  in  religious  sym- 
bols, if  we  pass  not  within  the  veil  of  silence,  to  attain 
hidden  communion,  our  life  being  hid  with  Christ  in 
God,  we  do  not  yet  know  the  greater  and  the  more  vital 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him. 

« II  Tim.  1:12. 


50  BARROWS  LECTURES 

The  outward  world  has  its  own  ministry  for  our  religious 
consciousness.  That  ministry  may  be  great  in  its  sug- 
gestiveness.  Outward  institutions,  ceremonies,  min- 
isters of  religion  are  to  be  esteemed  highly  for  their 
venerable  associations  and  for  their  educational  values; 
but  these  are  partial,  and  immeasurably  the  lesser  part 
of  the  Christian  religion.  In  the  hour  when  they  are 
made  ultimate,  they  become  vain.  The  world  for  us, 
as  for  you,  is  but  a  symbol,  a  fleeting  although  wondrous 
spectacle ;  a  dream  that  vanishes.  Reality  is  within,  in 
the  depth  of  the  Eternal  Wisdom.  Whispered  in  the 
ear  of  every  one  who  essays  to  satisfy  his  soul  with  the 
outward  (whether  that  outward  be  the  doctrine  and 
ritual  of  a  church  or  the  music  and  colour  of  Nature) 
should  be  those  prophetic  words  of  Coleridge  in  the 
*'Ode  to  Dejection": 

It  were  a  vain  endeavour 

Though  I  should  gaze  for  ever 
On  that  green  light  that  lingers  in  the  West; 
I  may  not  hope  from  outward  forms  to  win 
The  passion  and  the  life,  whose  fountains  are  within ! 

Let  us  now  enter  within  this  temple  of  experience 
where  one  finds,  in  truth,  the  Mystical  Element  in  the 
Christian  Religion.  How  calm  is  this  temple  of  inner 
experience !  How  free  from  punctilios  of  ceremonialism, 
controversial  clamour  of  dogmatism,  the  pride  of  life! 
With  Jacob  the  patriarch,  we  say,  as  we  leave  the  mad 
rush  of  the  world  and  meet  the  first  impression  of  this 
inward  serenity:  "This  is  none  other  but  the  house  of 
God,  and  this  is  the  gate  of  Heaven." '     Over  this  portal 

I  Gen.  28:17. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  51 

might  be  written:  ^^The  peace  of  God,  which  passe th 
all  understanding,  shall  guard  your  hearts  and  your 
thoughts  in  Christ  Jesus."'  My  brethren,  I  am  asking 
you  to  enter  no  alien  structure  of  the  Western  imagina- 
tion, with  which  perchance  you  have  nothing  in  com- 
mon, and  beneath  whose  roof  that  only  may  be  found 
which  is  unintelligible  to  the  Oriental  Consciousness. 
This  is  a  faith  and  an  experience  which  reached  matur- 
ity, when  Northern  Europe  was  a  wilderness,  and  Amer- 
ica a  continent  unknown.  The  channels  through  which 
came  the  sources  of  this  faith  and  of  this  experience 
lead  Eastward  not  Westward.  God  alone  knows  how 
far  Eastward  the  original  sources  of  this  faith  may  be 
traced  as  we  follow  them  through  their  Semitic  ante- 
cedents. Into  Assyria,  into  Persia,  into  Babylonia  they 
surely  run.  The  question  is.  Do  these  springs  blend 
in  one  common  original  with  those  from  which  came 
the  Vedas  and  all  that  followed  from  the  Vedas  and 
determined  the  religious  development  of  India  and  the 
Farther  East?  I  have  in  my  possession,  through  the 
kindness  of  an  Indian  friend,  a  book  written  many  years 
ago  by  an  Indian,  dealing  with  this  very  subject:  the 
many  points  of  contact  between  the  Semitic  elements 
out  of  which  Christianity  arose  and  the  Vedic  elements 
^out  of  which  evolved  the  essential  features  of  Indian  life. 
He  made  an  argument  of  strength  to  show  the  influence 
of  Biblical  upon  Aryan  thought.  If  location  is  to  deter- 
mine relative  rights  of  ownership,  then  that  of  which  I 
speak  to-night  belongs  to  you  more  nearly  and  more 
naturally,  than  to  me;  and  the  fact  that  I  enter  into  it, 

I  Phil.  4:7. 


52  BARROWS  LECTURES 

and  assimilate  it,  and  find  this  sacred  religion  of  the 
East,  the  religion  of  Christ,  the  very  life  of  my  life,  proves 
only  that  tjjj^jworld  is  one  family^m  all  its  greatest  in- 
heritances^ 

I  foresee  that  in  the  remainder  of  this  lecture  time 
shall  be  found  to  go  but  a  little  way  into  this  temple  of 
inner  experience.  Nevertheless  I  shall  not  hasten:  for 
every  step  reveals  new  beauties,  and  our  study  of  the 
Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian  Religion  shall  extend 
over  the  next  two  lectures  in  which  we  consider  the 
Witnes_g_QLGod  in  the_^Qul  and  the  Witness  of  the  Soul 
to^od. 

Next  to  the  ethical  misrepresentation  of  the  Christian 
religion  by  the  perverse  and  contradictory  lives  of  its 
nominal  adherents,  I  know  of  nothing  more  likely  to 
repel  Orientals  from  the  sympathetic  study  of  this 
Eastern  faith  than  the  overshadowing  prominence  of 
ecclesiastical  institutions^  That  these  institutions  are 
inseparable  from  the  Occidental  practise  of  Christianity, 
history  appears  to  show.  That  they  have  their  excel- 
lent uses,  in  their  own  sphere,  it  would  be  but  question- 
able wisdom  to  deny.  But  that  they  may  be  left  out 
of  consideration  without  impairing  the  vital  essence  of 
the  religion  itself  is  the  impressive  fact  with  which  we 
are  at  this  moment  concerned ;  and,  I  may  add,  it  is  the 
fact  which  makes  its  appeal  to  us  when  we  enter  the 
temple  of  inner  experience  where  we  are  now  treading. 
The  fundamental  claim  of  all  the  mystics  of  all  the  ages 
is  that  the  seat  of  authority  in  religious  knowledge  lies 
within  the  soul  itself,  not  in  some  external  court  or 
tribunal.     It  is  more  than  interesting — it  is  wonderful 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   53 

— that  with  this  persistent  claim  of  mysticism  the  pro- 
foundest  philosophical  movement  of  the  modern  world 
is  in  agreement.  "It  has  been  settled  for  all  time  that 
itjie  criterion  of  truth  is  to  be  found  in  the  nature  of. 
'consciousness  itself — not  somewhere  else."' 

Although  it  be  that  many  mystics,  led  far  afield  by 
seductive  glimmerings  of  false  lights,  have  fallen  into 
confusion  and  a  snare,  yet  is  the  sanctuary  of  ultimate 
truth  within,  in  the  depth  where  God  and  the  soul  meet 
in  knowledge.  The  words  of  Browning  must  have 
occurred  to  you  as  I  have  been  speaking: 

Truth  is  within  ourselves;  it  takes  no  rise 
From  outward  things,  whate'er  you  may  believe. 
There  is  an  inmost  centre  in  us  all 
Where  truth  abides  in  fulness:  and  around, 
Wall  upon  wall,  the  gross  flesh  hems  it  in, 
This  perfect,  clear  conception — which  is  truth. 
A  baffling  and  perverting  carnal  mesh 
Binds  it  and  makes  all  error:  and  to  know 
Rather  consists  in  opening  out  a  way 
Whence  the  imprisoned  splendour  may  escape, 
Than  in  effecting  entry  for  a  light 
Supposed  to  be  without.^ 

To  this  conception,  familiar  and  dear  to  Oriental 
Consciousness,  the  Christian  religion  lends  itself  in  ways 
so  vital  and  so  extensive  that  this  may  be  called  the  true 
starting-point  from  which  to  investigate  the  mystical 
element  in  this  Faith.  The  words  of  Christ:  "The 
Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you,"^  announce  to  us  a  fact 

I  C/.    RuFUS    M,    Jones,    M.A.,  ^  Paracelsus,  Book  I. 

LiTT.D.,  Social  Law  in  the  Spiritual  j    , 

World  (The  John  C.  Winston  Co.,  ^'■^^' 

Philadelphia,  n.  d.). 


54  BARROWS  LECTURES 

which  is  not  more  harmonious  with  our  own  intuitive 
value-judgment  on  the  meaning  and  worth  of  self-con- 
scious life  than  it  is  characteristic  of  the  glorious  system 
of  religious  thinking  which  bears  His  Name,  and  for  the 
investigation  and  interpretation  of  which  I  am  enthusias- 
tically endeavouring  to  enlist  the  elements  of  the  Ori- 
ental Consciousness,  represented  in  yourselves.  I  ask 
you  now  to  look,  with  me,  into  the  basis  on  which,  in 
true  Christian  mysticism,  rests  this  idea  that  the  seat  of 
authority  in  religious  matters  is  within  the  soul  itself. 
To  use  the  words  of  another:  ^'The  soul  itself  possesses 
a  ground  of  certitude  in  spiritual  matters,  and  sees  what 
is  essential  to  its  life  with  the  same  directness  that  the 
mathematician  sees  his  axioms."'  I  take  up  this  sub- 
ject with  the  greatest  delight,  because  it  permits  me  to 
show  you  that  the  higher  Christian  philosophy  is  not 
incompatible  with  those  presuppositions  concerning  the 
universe  that  are  absolutely  fundamental  in  Indian 
thinking,  and,  in  my  belief,  will  so  remain  for  ever. 
Indian  minds  of  the  greatest  penetration  and  nobility 
have  been  repelled  from  Christianity  because  of  its  sup- 
posedly impossible  philosophy.  I  venture  to  say  that 
many  have  been  so  repelled,  from  the  intellectual  stand- 
point, while  admiring  the  ethical  beauty  of  Christ  and 
of  Christian  ideals.  They  were  repelled  because  they 
had  encountered  only  what  I  may  call  the  popular  phi- 
losophy of  untutored  minds,  which  has  strongly  marked 
dualistic  features.  They  beheld  God  represented  as 
an  anthropomorphic  God,  resembling  a  deified  man,  "a 
magnified  image  of  man  reflected  back  upon  space  by 

»  Jones,  op.  cit.,  p.  171. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION  55 

the  mirror  of  self -consciousness."'  I  wonder  not  that 
Ludwig  Feuerbach,  the  German  atheist,*  attacked  that 
conception  of  the  Divine;  comparing  it  to  the  illusion 
observed  by  pilgrims  to  the  Brocken  in  Switzerland,  who 
often  see  during  an  autumn  sunrise  shadows  of  their 
own  figures  enormously  dilated,  confronting  them  from 
a  great  distance,  bowing  as  they  bow,  kneeling  as  they 
kneel,  mocking  them  in  all  their  gestures,  and  finally 
disappearing  as  the  sun  rises  higher  in  the  sky.  In  like 
manner  this  popular  philosophy  has  represented  the 
phenomental  world  as  absolutely  and  independently 
real ;  real,  so  to  say,  in  its  own  right,  apart  from  cogni- 
tion; as  real  as  the  soul,  as  real  as  God.  Such  methods 
of  dealing  with  fundamental  questions  could  not  fail  to 
repel  the  intellectual  elements  of  Eastern  society,  how- 
ever much  those  same  elements  might  be  attracted 
ethically.  It  is  therefore  important  as  well  as  agreeable 
to  remind  my  learned  hearers  that  such  conceptions  are 
not  representative  of  the  higher  philosophy  of  the  East- 
em  religion  which  bears  the  name  of  Christ.  Probably 
they  misrepresent  the  higher  Christian  thinking  of  our 
time  as  egregiously  as  do  some  of  the  fantastic  tales 
that  float  by  hearsay  through  the  Western  world  mis- 
represent the  high  conclusions  of  philosophical  Hin- 
duism. If  I  do  not  fail,  in  my  ignorance,  to  represent 
correctly  the  essence  of  those  high  conclusions,  it  is  this : 
the  search  for  Brahma  is  the  highest  task  of  the  soul, 
in  order  to  emancipation  from  Maya.     Maya  is,  so  far 

1  Cf,  R.  H.  HuTTON,  Theological  don,  1854),  reviewed  by  Hutton,  op. 
Essays  (ed.  London,  1888),  p.  25.  cit.,  under   title    The  Atheistic   Ex- 

2  Cf.  The  Essence  of  Christianity,  planation  0}  Religion. 
trans,  by  Marian  Evans  (ed.  Lon- 


56  •  BARROWS  LECTURES 

as  one  may  define  mystery,  the  multitude  of  illusory 
things  clinging  around  the  supreme  and  only  reality 
through  the  multiplying  power  of  Brahma:  Maya  is 
not  an  independent  principle.  Emancipation  is  knowl- 
edge, the  knowledge  of  Brahma :  it  is  not  a  new  begin- 
ning "but  only  the  perception  of  that  which  has  existed 
from  eternity  but  has  hitherto  been  concealed  from  us."^ 
Emancipation  is  soul-union  with  God  realised  as  eter- 
nally existing.  I  hope  that  I  do  not  materially  distort  any 
of  these  conceptions.  It  is  necessary  for  me  to  refer  to 
the  fact  that  the  aspiration  for  emancipation  from  finite 
life  is  not  a  conception  entertained  in  the  earliest  Indian 
thought.  To  the  splendid  poets  of  the  Rig  Veda,  as  to 
the  Prophets  and  Apostles  of  the  Bible,  life,  finite  life, 
was  glorious  and  good;  a  thing  to  be  desired.  "They 
were  filled  with  the  warm  desire  for  life  and  wish  for 
themselves  and  their  posterity  a  life  of  a  hundred 
years." ^  But  I  take  the  present  dominant  Indian  phi- 
losophy and  compare  it  thus  with  the  higher  Christian 
philosophy  to  show  that,  while  there  are  differences  in 
point  of  view  and  in  conclusions,  the  systems,  as  such, 
are  not  incompatible,  and  the  Christian  system  offers  no 
serious  difficulty  to  the  most  purely  trained  Indian  mind. 
Thus  does  the  higher  Christian  thinking  lay  a  basis 
in  reason  for  the  claim  of  mysticism  that  the  soul  has  this 
right  of  immediacy  toward  God,  to  abide  in  God  and 
God  in  it,  and  that  the  criterion  of  truth  is  found  in  the 
nature  of  consciousness  and  not  in  some  exterior  tri- 

iC/.  DEUssEN,o/>.ai.,  pp.344,345,  2  Rig    Veda,     7:89,    quoted    by 

and    Professor    Satthianadhan,      Deussen,  op.  cit.,  p.  340. 
Lectures    on    Indian    Philosophical 
Systems  as  Related  to  Christianity. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   57 

bunal.  It  looks  out  into  the  phenomenal  world  and 
sees  the  infinite  throng  of  objects  and  persons.  At  first 
they  seem  a  bewildering  crowd  of  unrelated  entities, 
each  isolated  from  the  other.  At  length  it  appears  that 
beneath  this  multiplicity  of  elements  there  must  exist  a 
common  ground  of  Being  whereby  they  are  able  to 
enter  into  relations  with  one  another,  and  in  some  man- 
ner, according  to  their  several  kinds  and  degrees,  as 
animate  or  inanimate,  rational  or  non-rational,  into 
relation  with  that  common  ground  of  Being  with  which 
their  own  existence  is  joined.  So  Hermann  Lotze  in 
his  Metaphysic  says:  "There  cannot  be  a  multiplicity 
of  independent  things,  but  all  elements,  if  reciprocal 
action  is  to  be  possible  between  them,  must  be  regarded 
as  parts  of  a  single  real  Being.  The  pluralism  with 
which  our  view  of  the  world  began  has  to  give  place  to 
a  Monism."'  I  may  also  quote  Professor  Upton  of 
Manchester  College,  in  his  Hibbert  Lectures  for  1893, 
who  says: 

Every  finite  atom  or  finite  soul  still  remains,  as  regards  a  part 
of  its  nature,  in  indivisible  union  with  its  self-subsistent  Ground 
and  Source.  This  common  relation  to  the  Self-subsistent  One 
affords  the  true  explanation  of  the  metaphysical  unity  of  the  cos- 
mos. Thus  the  most  recent  science  and  philosophy  appear  to 
assert  at  once  a  real  pluralism  or  individualism  in  the  world  of 
infinite  beings,  but  at  the  same  time  a  deeper  Monism.  The 
Eternal,  Who  differentiates  His  Own  Self-subsistent  energy  into 
the  infinite  variety  of  finite  existence  is  still  immanent  and  living 
in  every  one  of  these  dependent  modes  of  being,  and  it  is  because 
all  finite  beings  are  only  partially  individual,  and  still  remain  in 
a  vital  union  with  their  Common  Ground  (which  is  God),  that 

'^  Cf.  op.  ciL,  p.  69. 


58  BARROWS  LECTURES 

beings  such  as  man,  who  have  attained  self -consciousness,  are  able 
to  enter  into  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual  relations  both  with 
other  rational  finite  minds  and  also  with  the  Eternal  Being  with 
Whom  their  own  existence  is  in  some  measure  indivisibly  con- 
joined. It  follows  from  this  fact  that  there  is  a  certain  self-revela- 
tion of  the  Eternal  and  Infinite  One  to  the  finite  soul,  and  therefore 
an  indestructible  basis  for  religious  ideas  and  religious  beliefs  as 
distinguished  from  what  is  called  scientific  knowledge.^ 

Such  is  the  basis,  in  our  higher  Christian  thinking, 
upon  which  we  rest  the  joyful  affirmation  of  true  mysti- 
cism that  each  soul  has  both  the  right  and  the  power  "to 
get  to  the  centre  of  life,  which  is  God  Himself/'  Such 
is  the  strong  foundation,  laid  in  the  depths  of  our  being, 
laid  in  the  nature  of  things,  on  which  rises  the  structure 
of  Christian  mysticism,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
the  true  temple  of  God  on  earth. 

In  bringing  you  to  this  point,  at  which  I  must  pre- 
pare to  close  this  lecture  (leaving  the  expansion  of  our 
beautiful  subject  for  the  lectures  on  "The  Witness  of 
God  in  the  Soul"  and  "The  Witness  of  the  Soul  to 
God"),  I  feel  that  I  am  bringing  you  to  the  centre  of 
the  Christian  religion  as  verified  through  experience. 
Here  is  where  the  Christian  lives ;  his  life  being  hid  with 
Christ  in  God.  He  does  not  live  here  as  an  anarchist, 
repudiating  the  organised  life  of  the  Christian  Church, 
refusing  to  acknowledge  what  can  be  accomplished 
through  religious  institutions,  an  ordained  ministry,  the 
Bible,  and  the  Sacraments.  On  the  contrary  he  under- 
stands the  functions  of  these  things  to  be  for  better 
ordering  of  the  aggregate  religious  consciousness,  for 

I  C/.  C.  B.  Upton,  B.A.,  B.Sc,  The  Bases  of  Religious  Belief  (ed.  London, 
1894),  pp.  12-16. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   59 

education  of  individuals  and  communities  in  the  things 
of  the  Spirit,  for  the  fostering  of  all  social  and  public 
aspects  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  for  the  better 
information  of  the  world  at  large  that  this  religion  exists 
in  vigour,  and  is  daily  extending  its  benign  sphere  of 
influence.  And  so  he  goes  out  often  from  the  silent 
temple  of  mysticism  and  takes  his  place  as  a  unit  in  the 
institutional  life  of  Christianity  and  submits  to  rules 
and  ordinances  not  as  a  matter  of  compulsion  but  as  a 
matter  of  liberty — because  he  feels  that  thereby  he  may 
both  receive  and  give  a  larger  good.  The  common 
worship  of  Christians  ministers  to  life  and  aids  the 
general  cause  of  light  and  love  in  ways  that  are  beyond 
the  scope  of  private  meditation,  though  in  no  sense  more 
sacred.  Nor  does  the  Christian  dwell  in  the  secret  life 
of  mysticism  as  a  recluse,  shut  up  to  himself  and  within 
himself  for  his  souPs  salvation.  On  the  contrary  he  takes 
the  greatest  interest  in  the  world,  in  the  ways  of  man, 
especially  in  the  lives  of  men,  their  joys,  their  sorrows, 
their  evil  and  their  good,  their  condition  and  their  des- 
tiny. You  will  instantly  discover  why  this  large,  liberal 
interest  in  others  is  consonant  with  Christian  mysticism 
when  you  recall  what  I  have  pointed  out  regarding  the 
philosophical  basis  of  Christian  mysticism.  It  rests  on 
the  truth  that  finite  beings  are  not  entirely  independent, 
wholly  unrelated  entities,  but  only  partially  individual 
because  remaining  by  necessity  in  vital  union  with  the 
Common  Ground  of  all  life,  which  is  the  self-subsistent 
Life  of  the  Eternal  One.  Through  this  union  with  the 
Common  Ground  (unrealised  and  unknown  though  it 
may  be  by  all  save  the  enlightened  few)  comes  the  power 


6o  BARROWS  LECTURES 

to  any  of  us,  Oriental  or  Occidental,  to  enter  into  intel- 
lectual, moral,  and  spiritual  relations  with  other  rational 
finite  beings,  as  well  as  into  relations  with  God.  They 
who  attain  this  mystical  (and  at  the  same  time  scientific) 
view  of  humanity  see  God  in  others  just  as  they  see  Him 
in  themselves.  They  believe  in  that  great  doctrine  of 
mysticism  which  the  Quakers  of  England  and  America 
announce  as  their  profoundest  discovery  'Hhat  every 
human  life  partakes  of  God.'"  So,  by  the  logic  of 
reason,  as  well  as  by  the  logic  of  love.  Christian  mysti- 
cism works  outward  into  respect  and  honour  and  solici- 
tude for  men  as  men,  beings  knit  together  with  ourselves 
through  vital  currents  that  meet  in  the  Common  Ground 
of  life  in  Whom  "we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being." 
It  works  outward  into  service,  swept  onward  by  the 
Divine  within  itself,  in  effort  to  liberate  the  imprisoned, 
unrecognised  Divinity  in  others.  It  works  outward  into 
self-fulfilment  through  sacrifice,  receiving  from  God,  as 
partakers  of  the  Divine  Nature,  the  spirit  of  sacrifice, 
which  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ  Jesus. 

Behind  all  these  outgoings,  whether  into  voluntary 
submission  to  religious  institutions  or  into  voluntary 
service  of  human  individuals,  is  that  secret  walk  with 
God,  that  meat  to  eat  which  the  world  knoweth  not  of. 
It  is  there  the  Christian  lives,  emancipated  through 
knowledge  of  the  self-subsistent  Life  with  which  his 
own  is  indivisibly  conjoined.  It  is  not  a  dual  life,  the 
soul  and  God  living  side  by  side  within  the  human 
personality:  finite  ^/i^5  Infinite.  It  is  oneness  of  being; 
it  is  monism  which  continues  no  more  a  philosophical 

I  C/.  Jones,  op.  ciL,  p.  165. 


MYSTICAL  ELEMENT  IN  THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION   6l 

speculation  but  becomes  a  blessed  experience.  In- 
numerable Christian  mystics  have  said:  '^I  have  experi- 
enced God."  The  finite  and  the  Infinite  are  known  in 
the  same  consciousness.  It  is  not  that  a  foreign  Divine 
substance  is  now  added  to  an  undivine  human  life.  It 
is  neither  human  nor  divine.  '^It  is/'  to  use  the  words 
of  one  who  has  spoken  out  of  this  knowledge,  "the 
actual  inner  self  formed  by  the  union  of  a  Divine  and 
human  element  in  a  single,  undivided  life."' 

In  an  Eastern  land,  upon  the  verge  of  that  desert 
across  which  for  four  thousand  years  have  passed  the 
camel  trains  that  bore  the  treasures  of  India  toward  the 
Syrian  coast,  a  group  of  Orientals  lingered  pensively 
about  a  table  whence  all  food  had  been  removed  save 
bread  and  wine.  The  night  advanced,  yet  spellbound 
they  hung  upon  the  words  of  One  Who,  worn  with  sor- 
row, yet  radiant  with  love,  opened  His  heart  before 
them,  declaring  the  secrets  of  the  soul's  consciousness 
of  God.  He  had  come  from  the  Father  to  be  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Eternal,  under  the  form  of  time.  He  had 
revealed  Him  through  deed  and  word,  through  the  voice 
of  conduct  and  the  silent  witness  of  character.  He  was 
now  on  the  threshold  of  a  revelation  yet  more  profound 
— the  revelation  through  death,  the  death  of  the  Cross. 
Majestic  sweetness  sat  upon  His  brow.  Power  emanated 
from  His  being.  Peace,  like  an  atmosphere,  surrounded 
Him.  And  this  witness  he  bore  of  Himself  as  the  Re- 
vealer  of  God ;  of  God  as  the  mystical  Life  of  the  soul : 

He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father :  I  came  forth  from 
the  Father  and  am  come  into  the  world.     I  am  in  the  Father  and 

I  C/.,  on  this  paragraph,  Jones,  op.  cit.,  p.  176. 


62  BARROWS  LECTURES 


the  Father  in  Me.  Abide  in  Me  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch  can- 
not bear  fruit  of  itself  except  it  abide  in  the  vine,  no  more  can  ye, 
except  ye  abide  in  Me.  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  Peace  I  give 
unto  you.* 

Through  Him  Who  spake  these  words  on  the  same  night 
in  which  He  was  betrayed ;  at  Whose  Infancy  sages  of 
the  East  bowed  in  worship;  the  meaning  of  Whose 
Cross  sages  of  the  East  first  taught  the  West,  may  I  be 
enabled  to  lead  you  a  little  way  amidst  the  inner  experi- 
ence of  the  enlightened  Christian  Consciousness! 

»  C/.  Gospel  of  John,  passim. 


LECTURE  THREE 

THE  WITNESS   OF  GOD   IN  THE  SOUL 

In  my  last  lecture  I  attempted  to  set  before  you  the 
basis  in  reason  of  the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian 
Religion.  I  am,  this  evening,  to  speak  of  "The  Witness 
of  God  in  the  Soul."  The  nature  and  import  of  that 
witness  become  reasonable  to  us,  and  authoritative  for 
us,  only  as  we  obtain  a  rational  view  of  the  basis  on 
which  it  rests.  I  beg  leave,  therefore,  to  speak  further 
on  that  subject.  A  deep  impression  of  diversity  and 
number  is  made  upon  the  mind  when  it  begins  to  reflect 
upon  the  enormous  multiplicity  of  human  lives:  to 
think,  for  example,  of  the  people  in  one  of  your  great 
cities,  of  the  population  of  India,  of  the  population  of 
the  world.  The  first  effect  of  such  reflections  is  to 
benumb  the  mind.  We  cannot,  in  thought,  follow  to 
its  conclusions  the  problem  of  a  world  made  up  of  such 
thronging  clouds  and  avalanches  of  separate  and  distinct 
beings,  each  one  going  its  own  way  through  time  and 
space,  all  circling  around  and  around  one  another  with 
the  meaningless,  buzzing  energy  of  an  infinite  swarm 
of  flies.  The  places  of  those  that  fall  are  taken  by  as 
many  more  that  seem  to  rise  from  the  ground  or  descend 
from  the  upper  air.  The  buzzing  of  the  swarm  goes 
through  years,  generations,  centuries,  millenniums.  It 
is  too  bewildering,  too  grotesque,  too  awful !  As  we  look 
more  intently  at  this  multiplicity  of  human  lives,  and 
at  the  continuous  reinforcement  of  generations,  we  are 

63 


64  BARROWS  LECTURES 

led  to  correct  our  first  impression  that  these  myriads 
of  humanity  are  like  a  swarm  of  flies.  We  perceive  that 
that  impression  misrepresents  the  truth.  For  in  all 
these  innumerable  beings,  we  find  common  rational 
powers,  varying  in  scope  and  measure,  the  same  in  kind. 
We  find  self-consciousness,  memory,  judgment,  inten- 
tion, desire,  will.  We  find,  in  a  word,  the  common 
equipment  of  thought.  By  reason  of  their  possession 
of  this  common  equipment  the  movement  of  these 
numberless  beings  is  not  the  aimless  circling  around 
one  another  of  a  swarm  of  flies.  It  is  the  action  and 
reaction,  in  all  spheres  of  consciousness,  lower  or  higher, 
of  thinking  lives,  in  relation  with  one  another  for  rational 
ends.  Instantly  on  perceiving  this,  our  impression  of 
human  existence  is  reversed.  No  longer  are  we  be- 
numbed by  the  buzzing  of  the  swarm;  we  are  stimu- 
lated by  the  mystery  of  a  thinking  world !  It  is  the  most 
wonderful  phenomenon  of  Nature.  To  the  eye  of  dis- 
cernment, each  separate  object  in  nature,  each  isolated 
fact  appears  worthy  of  our  attention  and  rewards  our 
study.  The  ancient  Biblical  Book  of  Job  reminds  us 
of  the  suggestiveness  of  detached  facts  and  processes  in 
nature : 

Stand  still  and  consider  the  wondrous  works  of  God : 

Dost  thou  know  the  balancings  of  the  clouds  ? 

Hast  thou  spread  out  the  sky  as  a  molten  looking-glass  ? 

Hast  thou  entered  into  the  springs  of  the  sea  ? 

Hast  thou  perceived  the  breadth  of  the  earth  ? 

Hast  thou  entered  into  the  treasures  of  the  snow  ? 

Gavest  thou  the  goodly  wings  unto  the  peacocks  ? 

Or  wings  and  feathers  unto  the  ostrich  ? 

Hast  thou  given  the  horse  strength  ? 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  65 

Doth  the  hawk  fly  by  thy  wisdom  ? 

Doth  the  eagle  mount  up  at  thy  command  ?^ 

Your  own  Vedic  hymns  abound  in  similar  suggestions; 
so  do  the  earliest  hymns  of  Egypt  and  Persia.  Intelligent 
study  of  facts  in  the  physical  world  opens  to  the  mind 
vistas  of  strength  and  beauty,  teaches  reverence,  saves 
from  morbid  self -concent  rat  ion,  quickens  the  pulse  with 
wholesome  joy  of  existence.  But  nothing  that  our 
researches  disclose  to  us  among  the  detached  phenomena 
of  the  bodily  and  the  visible  rises  to  the  level  of  grandeur 
on  which  stands  the  fact  of  a  thinking  world,  a  world  of 
innumerable  persons  who  are  not  isolated  atoms  but 
related  existences,  related  through  the  possession  of  com- 
mon powers  of  consciousness.  Consider  how  humanity 
is  bound  together  through  the  interaction  of  the  powers 
of  consciousness.  All  the  rudimentary  conditions  of 
life  depend  on  this  interaction  of  a  common  principle 
of  rationality.  The  procedures  of  the  commercial 
world,  both  in  local  demand  and  supply,  and  in  all  the 
larger  movements  of  finance  and  industrial  develop- 
ment, are  possible  only  because  men  can  meet  intel- 
ligibly through  the  action  of  thought.  All  domestic 
relationships  that  rise  above  the  level  of  physical  im- 
pulse and  attain  the  dignity  of  self-determining  affec- 
tions, choices,  and  companionships  are  what  they  are 
because  heart  answers  to  heart,  mind  to  mind,  and  the 
interchanges  of  reason  and  will.  This  interaction  of 
the  powers  of  consciousness  ignores  race  distinctions 
and  goes  on  wherever  life  meets  life.  Behold  how  we 
are  met  together  at  this  moment  in  intellectual  fellow- 

I  Job,  chaps.  37,  38,  39. 


66  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ship.  Our  ancestries  lie  on  opposite  sides  of  the  world ; 
our  minds  mingle  and  flow  together  in  one  channel  of 
rational  consciousness.  Consider  also  that  more  subtle 
correspondence  of  minds  out  of  which  grow  national 
ideals,  movements  of  liberty,  of  art,  of  letters;  that 
perpetual,  and,  as  it  would  appear,  semi-involuntary 
integration  of  intellectual  forces  which  transcends  indi- 
vidual intercourse  and  is  called  civilisation.  Mr.  John 
Addington  Symonds,  speaking  of  the  Revival  of  Learn- 
ing in  Europe,  says : 

Some  of  the  chief  productions  of  humanity  seem  to  require  the 
co-operation  of  whole  peoples,  working  sympathetically  to  a  com- 
mon end.  The  most  splendid  triumphs  of  modern  architecture 
in  the  French  and  English  Gothic  were  achieved  by  the  half  uncon- 
scious striving  of  the  national  genius  through  several  centuries. 
The  names  of  the  builders  of  the  cathedrals  are  unknown;  the 
cathedrals  themselves  bear  less  the  stamp  of  individual  thought 
than  of  popular  instinct;  their  fame  belongs  to  the  race  that  made 
them,  to  the  spirit  of  the  times  that  gave  them  birth,' 

Stimulated  by  this  splendid  mystery  of  a  thinking 
world,  and  perceiving  that  we  ourselves  are  a  part  of  it, 
and  that  a  solution  of  the  mystery  would  be  a  solution  of 
the  major  problem  of  our  own  existence,  the  higher 
Christian  thinking  ever  has  pressed  for  a  rational 
answer.  Through  the  patient  thought  of  centuries, 
guided,  as  I  believe,  amidst  many  eddies  of  variant 
opinion  by  the  self -revealing  Spirit  of  God,  that  answer, 
like  a  river  moving  toward  the  sea  and  broadening  as 
it  moves,  has  gained  the  power  and  depth  of  certitude. 
It  has  become  evident  to  the  Christian  Consciousness 

I  The  Renaissance  in  Italy,  volume  on  "Revival  of  Learning"  (2d  ed., 
London,  1882). 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  67 

that  the  multitude  of  individual  lives  cannot  be  regarded 
as  absolutely  separate  existences,  each  one  a  self-sub- 
sisting whole,  detached  from  all  other  finite  existences 
and  in  the  same  manner  detached  from  God.  Such  a 
theory  of  the  world  offers  no  adequate  explanation  of 
those  relations,  intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  that  unite 
society  and  produce  civilisation;  and  such  a  theory  of 
God,  as  distinct,  transcendent,  objective,  is  contradict- 
ory to  the  fact  of  man's  religious  consciousness,  which 
we  are  constantly  finding  out  to  be  a  more  universal, 
more  homogeneous  fact  than  once  was  imagined. 
Christian  thought  moves  in  the  direction  of  a  conclusion 
which,  if  thought  be  described  as  a  river,  may  without  ex- 
aggeration be  called  an  ocean  of  majestic  finality.  Lotze's 
words  (which  I  quoted  in  my  last  lecture)  give  us  our 
first  glimpse  of  that  broad  ocean  of  Being:  "There  can- 
not be  a  multiplicity  of  independent  things,  but  all  ele- 
ments, if  reciprocal  action  is  to  be  possible,  must  be 
regarded  as  parts  of  a  single  real  Being.  The  pluralism 
with  which  our  view  of  the  world  began  has  to  give  place 
to  a  Monism."  As  our  joyous  and  worshipping  gaze 
looks  out  upon  this  ocean  of  Ultimate  Being,  what 
message  does  it  give  back  to  us  touching  this  wonderful 
phenomenon  of  nature — a  thinking  world  ?  What  has 
it  to  tell  us  of  this  common  life  of  thought  into  which  all 
rational  beings  enter  as  into  an  atmosphere  which  they 
breathe  in  common,  as  the  single  unitary  element  of  all 
their  individual  personalities,  this  life  of  self-conscious- 
ness, memory,  judgment,  intention,  desire,  will  ?  What 
has  it  to  tell  us  of  these  relationships  which  we  form 
with  one  another,  of  the  paths  of  intellectual  and  spirit- 


68  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ual  communion  in  which  Oriental  and  Occidental  may 
walk  together,  the  deeps  of  consciousness  in  one  calling 
unto  the  deeps  of  consciousness  in  the  other  ?  It  tells 
us  this:  That  beneath  all  finite  life,  as  the  ocean  is 
beneath  all  ships  that  sail  upon  it,  as  the  air  is  beneath 
all  birds  that  fly  through  it,  is  one  Infinite  Ground  of 
Being,  the  substance,  the  life  that  stands  under  all  finite 
life,  in  Whom,  and  of  Whom,  and  by  Whom,  and  unto 
Whom  are  all  things.  But  here  my  metaphors  of  the 
ocean  and  the  air  break  down.  The  ocean  supports 
yet  produces  not  the  ships  that  sail  on  it ;  the  air  carries 
yet  generates  not  the  birds  that  fly  through  it.  But 
this  Infinite  Ground  of  Being,  which  is  beneath  all  life, 
is  the  Source  of  all  life;  this  Great  World-Master 
projects  our  finite  spirits  out  of  Himself.'  Every  life 
that  is,  comes  out  from  Him  and  exists  in  Him:  "In 
Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  said  the 
Christian  Apostle.''  Another  of  the  early  Christian 
documents  thus  puts  it:  "He  hath  given  us  all  things 
that  pertain  to  life  that  (we)  might  be  partakers  of  the 
Divine  Nature."^  In  every  one  of  these  lives  His  being 
exists,  and  because  of  this  common  element  in  them- 
selves men  can  communicate  intelligibly  with  one 
another  and  with  God. 

The  Eternal  One  Who  differentiates  His  Own  Self-subsisting 
energy  into  the  infinite  variety  of  finite  existences  is  still  immanent 
and  living  in  every  one  of  these  dependent  modes  of  being,  and  it  is 
because  all  finite  beings  are  only  partially  individual,  and  still 
remain  in  vital  (though  often  unconscious)  union  with  their  Com- 
mon Ground  (which  is  God),  that  beings  such  as  man,  who  have 

I  C/.    Upton,  Bases  of  Religious  2  q/.  Acts  17:28. 

Beliefy  p.  303.  3  Cf.  II  Peter  i  -.3,  4. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  69 

attained  self-consciousness,  are  able  to  enter  into  intellectual, 
moral  and  spiritual  relations  both  with  other  rational  finite  minds 
and  also  with  the  Eternal  Being,  with  Whom  their  own  existence  is 
in  some  measure  indivisibly  conjoined. 

It  follows  that  there  is  a  certain  self-revelation  of  the  Eternal 
and  Infinite  One  to  the  finite  soul,  and  therefore  an  indestructible 
basis  for  religious  ideas  and  religious  beliefs,  as  distinguished  from 
what  is  called  scientific  knowledge.' 

If  we  accept  this  answer  of  the  higher  Christian 
Consciousness  to  the  most  fundamental  problem  of 
man's  existence,  the  problem  of  a  thinking  world,  we 
find  a  basis  for  the  thought  that  is  more  particularly 
before  us :  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul.  I  take  com- 
fort in  reflecting  that  the  answer  which  I  have  given  is 
one  that  an  Indian  intellect  might,  without  self -stulti- 
fication, assimilate  and  adopt.  In  its  fundamental 
proposition  that  the  Eternal  One  differentiates  His  own 
self-subsisting  energy  into  the  infinite  variety  of  finite 
existences,  it  is  not  far  removed  from  the  fundamental 
proposition  of  the  highest  Indian  thinking,  that  the  self- 
subsisting  Brahma,  the  Absolute,  by  His  multiplying 
power,  projects  the  infinite  variety  of  finite  existences 
and  distinctions  described  by  the  mystic  word  Maya. 
The  common  term  by  which  Indian  and  Christian 
philosophy  are  here  brought  measurably  together  is 
their  agreement  in  the  rejection  of  a  deistic  view  of  the 
world :  that  is,  a  view  which  sets  off  God  from  the  world, 
as  an  outside  force,  approaching  men  simply  by  external 
influences,  and  which  considers  the  world  to  have  in- 
trinsic independence  and  separateness.  It  is  perhaps 
safe  to  say  that  deism  is  not  likely  to  find  philosophical 

I  Upton,  op.  ciL,  p.  16. 


70  BARROWS  LECTURES 

reinstatement,  either  in  East  or  West.  The  maturest 
thought  of  each  age  will  more  probably  set  it  aside  as 
inadequate. 

It  has  been  well  said,  and  I  am  sure  that  many  of  my 
learned  hearers  would  find  themselves  in  agreement: 

The  characteristic  defect  of  Deism  is  that,  on  the  human  side, 
it  treats  all  men  as  isolated  individuals,  forgetful  of  the  immanent 
Divine  Nature  which  interrelates  them,  and,  in  a  measure,  unifies 
them;  and  that,  on  the  Divine  side,  it  separates  man  from  God, 
and  makes  the  relation  between  them  a  purely  external  one.^ 

While  there  is  reason  to  hope  that  the  Christian  basis 
that  I  have  laid  down  is  not  incompatible  with  the  pri- 
mary philosophical  requirement  of  thoughtful  Indians, 
I  wish  clearly  to  point  out  that  the  distinctions  between 
it  and  pantheism,  as  ordinarily  conceived,  are  great. 
They  are  great  in  both  directions,  manward  and  God- 
ward.  Man  ward  the  tendency  of  pantheistic  thought 
is  to  take  the  conception  with  which  I  am  in  accord, 
that  God  projects  our  finite  spirits  out  of  His  own  sub- 
stance, and  to  carry  it  to  conclusions  which  practically 
efface  the  intellectual  and  moral  significance  of  indi- 
viduality. Pantheism  tends  to  make  man  identical  with 
God.  When  so  conceived,  the  intellectual  significance 
of  man's  individuality  is  effaced.  It  is  effaced  by  virtue 
of  the  fact  that  finite  individuality  has  no  longer  any 
reality,  as  such.  It  is  an  illusory  manifestation  of 
the  Infinite.  The  finite  mind,  which  to  me  appears 
as  the  most  glorious  of  all  God's  productions,  remains 
no  longer  possessed  of  real  initiative,  power  of  discern- 
ment, capacity  to  move  and  mould  the  minds  of  others 

I  Upton,  op.  cit,,  p.  237. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  71 

by  utterances  of  truth  and  light.  Its  movements,  how- 
ever sincere,  devout,  able,  instructive,  or  stimulating, 
are  phantasmal  movements  of  a  phantasmal  conscious- 
ness, cancelled  rather  than  confirmed  by  reality.  To- 
gether with  the  effacement  of  the  intellectual  signifi- 
cance of  individuality  comes  the  effacement  of  true 
moral  responsibility.  It  must  so  follow,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  for  conduct  becomes,  under  such 
conditions,  not  the  fruit  of  deliberation  and  choice, 
carrying  with  it  responsibility,  but  the  necessary  out- 
come of  antecedent  conditions,  each  determined  by  the 
one  preceding,  in  an  immeasurable  series  of  predeces- 
sions  hidden  ultimately  in  the  depths  of  the  unknowable. 
There  is  practically  no  ethical  distinction,  no  responsi- 
bility remaining  to  the  individual  in  a  consistent,  thor- 
ough-going theory  of  pantheism.  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
assume  any  such  effacement  of  moral  distinctions  to  have 
taken  place  in  any  man  to  whom  I  now  speak,  for  there  is 
in  all  of  us  an  inherent  sense  of  right  and  wrong  which  no 
philosophy  can  utterly  abolish  or  destroy;  there  is  an 
inward  witness  to  good  against  evil  that  abides  in  the 
constitution  of  our  being  and  saves  us,  for  nobler  things, 
from  the  logical  effects  of  theory.  There  is  genuine 
comfort  in  reading  in  the  Hindustan  Review  a  brilliant 
article  on  the  subject  by  a  Vedantist  which  concludes 
with  the  words :  "A  practical  distinction  between  God 
and  man  is  recognised  equally  in  Hinduism  and  Chris- 
tianity. Our  philosophers  represent  it  as  a  mystery." 
I  am  sure  that  it  is  largely  the  recognition  of  this  prac- 
tical distinction  that  is  developing  throughout  India 
to-day  so  many  strong,  beautiful  traits  of  character  in 


72  BARROWS  LECTURES 

individuals  and  so  earnest  an  initiative  in  many  quarters 
on  the  side  of  all  that  makes  for  social  advancement  and 
well-being.  From  the  earliest  dawn  of  Biblical  thought, 
in  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews,  which  was  the  lineal  ante- 
cedent of  Christianity  and  which  had  its  predecessors 
among  faiths  reaching  back  into  the  depths  of  Asiatic 
life,  there  was  full  acceptance  of  the  original  projection 
of  man  out  of  the  Substance  of  God,  of  the  Absolute 
Being  as  the  Source  and  Ground  of  all  finite  being.  But 
the  expression  of  that  thought  moved  upon  lines  con- 
stantly growing  more  distinct  until  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment they  blazed  like  lines  of  fire,  protecting  inviolate 
man's  intellectual  individuality,  and  his  moral  responsi- 
bility. The  purpose  of  the  Eternal  Infinite  in  projecting 
these  finite  existences  out  of  His  own  substance  was, 
according  to  Christian  thinking,  not  to  surround  Him- 
self with  a  throng  of  illusory  appearances,  His  only  rela- 
tion with  whom  must  be  the  perpetual  cancellation  of 
illusion.  It  was  that  humanity,  imaged  after  Himself 
in  all  the  powers  of  consciousness,  might  be  "a  real 
^ other'  to  Himself/"  so  that  God  and  humanity  might 
enter  into  responsive  and  reciprocal  relations.  Into 
that  real  ^^ other"  He  entered,  being  immanent  in  every 
human  life,  that  all  humanity  might  not  only  have 
power  of  mutual  interchange  and  of  correspondence 
with  Him,  but,  above  this,  that  man  might  be  com- 
petent, in  sharing  God's  nature,  to  know  the  ideal  right- 
eousness, and  so  knowing,  to  exercise  the  functions  and 
to  assume  the  responsibility  of  a  moral  being.  Such  is 
the  Christian's  view  of  personality — a  view  with  which, 

I  C/.  Upton,  op.  ciL,  p.  303. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  73 

judging  from  fine  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  that 
I  have  observed  in  Indian  life,  I  must  conclude  that 
many  whom  I  now  address  are  in  full  accord.  I  am 
constrained  to  describe  it  as  a  noble  conception  of  per- 
sonality. It  gives  to  man  his  kinship  in  the  Divine  Life, 
yet  takes  from  him  none  of  the  rights  and  immunities 
of  individual  being.  It  makes  him  a  partaker  of  the 
Divine  Nature,  yet  leaves  him  the  actual  possessor  of 
himself.  In  particular  it  places  upon  his  brow  the 
high  caste  mark  of  intellectuality  and  sets  upon  his 
neck  the  garland  of  moral  freedom.  I  love  the  Chris- 
tian view  of  manhood  because  it  sets  the  mark  of  reality 
upon  the  functions  of  the  mind.  What  a  princely 
endowment  we  have — this  heritage  of  mentality  con- 
ferred upon  us  through  the  immanence  of  the  Divine 
Nature !  The  mind  is  a  torch,  kindled  at  the  Eternal 
Flame  of  self-subsistent  consciousness.  The  rays  from 
that  torch  are  the  manifold  powers  of  our  rational  self : 
imagination,  analysis,  deliberation,  judgment,  choice, 
volition,  memory.  How  superb  and  shining  the  endow- 
ment! What  incentive  to  education,  self -discipline, 
reflection,  dedication  of  thought  in  the  service  of 
humanity !  I  recall  the  words  of  Augustine  concerning 
memory;  one  finds  them  in  his  Conjessions.  One 
might  apply  them  to  each  of  the  God-derived  powers 
of  the  mind: 

I  come  [he  says]  to  the  spacious  fields  and  palaces  of  memory, 
wherein  are  treasured  unnumbered  images  of  things  of  sense  and 
our  thoughts  about  them.  There,  in  the  vast  court  of  memory,  are 
present  to  me  heaven,  earth,  sea,  and  all  that  I  can  think  upon,  all 
that  I  have  forgotten  therein.     There  too  I  meet  myself  and  what- 


74  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ever  I  have  felt  and  done,  my  experiences,  my  beliefs,  my  hopes 
and  plans  for  the  years  to  come.  Great  is  this  power  of  memory, 
exceeding  great,  O  God;  who  has  ever  fathomed  its  abyss  ?  And 
yet  this  power  is  mine,  a  part  of  my  very  nature,  nor  can  I  compre- 
hend all  that  I  myself  really  am.  Great  is  this  power  of  memory, 
a  wondrous  thing,  O  my  God,  in  all  its  depth  and  manifest  immen- 
sity, and  this  thing  is  my  mind,  and  this  mind  is  myself.' 

I  love  the  Christian  view  of  manhood  still  more  be- 
cause it  sets  upon  the  shoulders  the  garland  of  moral 
freedom.  Do  I  say  the  garland  of  moral  freedom? 
Rather  should  I  say  the  yoke,  if  that  freedom  be  used 
abnormally,  if  liberty  be  prostituted  into  license.  Then 
freedom,  ceasing  to  be  freedom,  becomes  slavery:  the 
will,  trampling  the  pearls  of  righteousness  under  foot, 
turns  again  to  rend  its  helpless  keeper.  But,  in  the 
normal  Christian  manhood,  moral  freedom  is  its  gar- 
land of  honour.  In  my  fifth  lecture,  on  the  Distinctive 
Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian  Religion,  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  go  more  fully  into  this  subject.  At  this 
point  I  advert  to  it  in  order  to  point  out  the  distinction 
between  a  Christian  philosophy  and  a  pantheistic  phi- 
losophy of  the  individual,  in  the  matter  of  moral  respon- 
sibility. In  the  latter,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  com- 
plete identification  of  the  individual  with  the  Absolute 
bereaves  him  of  responsibility.  What  he  does,  be  it 
good  or  evil,  is  not  good  nor  evil  in  reality,  but  a  result 
of  successive  conditions  emerging  ultimately  out  of 
the  multiplying  power  of  Brahma;  and,  as  it  is  the  goal 
of  the  soul  to  attain,  in  knowledge  of  the  Absolute, 
its  emancipation  from  phenomenal  conditions,  it  must, 

I  C/.  Confessions. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  75 

as  it  advances  toward  that  emancipation,  withdraw 
itself  from  moral  distinctions,  as  from  work  and  all 
other  obstacles  in  the  path  of  the  great  consumma- 
tion. Nothing  could  be  further  from  my  thought  at' 
this  moment  than  controversy.  I  am  innocent  of  all 
purpose  and  desire  to  that  end.  Nor  do  I  judge  myself 
competent  or  worthy  to  analyse,  save  in  the  most 
elementary  manner,  these  profound  matters  of  faith, 
concerning  which  I  could  not  speak  at  all,  save  with 
becoming  reverence.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to 
speak  to  Indians  in  an  unfriendly  or  an  ungenerous  spirit, 
for  my  heart  is  with  you  in  undying  affection.  I  have  a 
settled  faith  that  whatever  is  true  and  essential  to  the 
fulness  of  truth  must  for  ever  abide  under  whatever 
name  or  religion  it  has  come  into  being,  and  whatever 
is  not  essential  to  the  truth  will,  in  the  end,  when  it  has 
done  its  work,  be  permitted  to  withdraw  and  pass  away. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  determine  and  judge,  I  leave  all 
these  issues  in  the  hands  of  Eternal  Truth  Who  is  also 
Eternal  Love.  My  sole  solicitude  is  to  present  things 
that  seem  to  me  to  bear  upon  the  essence  of  truth.  If 
my  presentation  contains  ought  of  that  essence,  it  shall 
abide.  If  not,  my  words  shall  pass  away  and  be  as 
though  they  had  not  been.  My  present  purpose  is 
simple.  As  a  devoted  lover  of  the  Christian  religion,  I 
seek  to  show  wherein  the  Christian  view,  starting  from 
its  exalted  premise  of  the  projection  of  finite  existences 
from  the  Substance  of  the  Infinite  Life  and  the  im- 
manence of  God  in  man,  reaches  the  conclusion  that 
that  projection  and  immanence  do  not  efface  finite 
personality,  but  rather  cause  it  to  be,  by  its  community 


76  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  essence  with  God,  self-realising,  capable  of  compre- 
hending His  character  and  moral  purpose.  Also  it  is 
capable,  because  of  its  participation  in  the  Divine 
Nature,  of  exercising  the  initiative  of  the  will,  taking 
cognizance  of  objects  and  desires,  weighing  motives, 
reaching  decisions.  If  this  be  a  true  account  of  man's 
individuality,  if  he  be  so  God-like  a  being  that  he  can 
be  an  arbiter  of  good  and  evil  in  his  own  right,  then  you 
will  agree  with  me  that  moral  freedom  is  his  garland  of 
honour.  What  can  be  more  magnij&cent  than  the  two- 
fold conception  now  before  us:  the  mind,  stimulated 
by  its  self-determining  capacity,  consecrating  its  power 
to  the  highest  use;  the  soul,  garlanded  with  freedom 
and  illumined  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  confronting  moral 
responsibility  and  choosing  righteousness  as  its  portion ! 
That  which  we  have  now  considered,  touching  the 
Christian  view  of  personality,  lays  a  basis  in  the  nature 
of  man  upon  which  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul 
becomes  a  conception  in  the  highest  degree  reasonable 
and  authoritative.  The  soul  owes  its  existence  to,  and 
attains  its  self-consciousness  in,  God.  Out  of  His  Sub- 
stance, as  the  Ground  and  Source  of  Being,  it  is  projected ; 
through  His  immanence  it  is  a  partaker  of  the  Divine 
Nature,  with  power  to  conceive  ideas  of  infinity,  eternity, 
intellectual  and  moral  perfection.  Its  projection  from 
the  self-subsistent  Ground  of  Being  is  a  projection  into 
rational  individuality,  and  moral  liberty,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  a  real  "other"  to  God  and  hold  reciprocal  rela- 
tions with  Him.  The  mind  is  real,  having  the  powers  of 
real  initiative,  of  continuous  observance  and  judgment  of 
phenomena.     The  will  is  not  the  automatic  instrument 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  77 

of  determinism,  an  executive  power  that  merely  carries 
out  predetermined  results  of  successive  states  of  char- 
acter. It  is  self-determining;  taking  all  the  data  that 
enter  into  any  possible  human  action,  those  supplied  by 
impulse  and  desire,  those  furnished  by  reason,  judgment, 
memory,  or  motive,  and,  in  the  light  of  all,  consummat- 
ing action  by  decision  and  so  taking  on  moral  responsi- 
bility, for  better  or  for  worse.  If  man  is  such  a  being, 
so  intimately  allied  to  God  yet  so  truly  in  possession  of 
individual  powers  of  reason  and  will,  then  the  witness  of 
God  in  his  soul  is  an  august  probability,  a  complete 
interpretation  of  many  facts  of  consciousness  not  other- 
wise to  be  explained. 

The  higher  Christian  thinking,  in  laying  down  a  basis 
on  which  the  conception  of  a  Divine  witness  in  the  soul 
is  made  reasonable  and  authoritative,  finds  it  necessary 
to  look  God  ward  as  well  as  man  ward.  It  is  conscious 
of  a  witness  in  man  for  which  superficial  facts  of  temper- 
ament and  pious  traditions  will  not  account,  a  witness 
which  is  also  a  presence,  compassing  man's  path  and 
his  lying  down,  and  acquainted  with  all  his  ways.  It 
perceives  that  in  innumerable  souls  a  witness  is  given 
similar  in  kind,  working  to  the  same  moral  and  spiritual 
ends.  On  these  evidences  the  higher  Christian  thinking 
arrives  at  the  conclusion  that  that  Infinite  Ground  and 
Source  of  Being,  in  which,  as  an  undying  principle,  is 
the  explanation  of  the  unity  of  human  consciousness, 
whereby  individual  minds  are  brought  into  relation 
with  each  other,  must  also  be  the  Source  from  which 
this  witness  in  the  soul  comes. 

Furthermore,  it  considers  the  nature  of  man's  mental 


78  BARROWS  LECTURES 

power.  It  finds  this  to  be  not  the  mere  promptings  of 
instinct,  after  the  manner  of  beasts  that  "nourish  a 
bhnd  life  within  the  brain."  It  is  power  of  the  highest 
order ;  of  subtle  quality.  It  is  self-conscious,  reflective 
power;  able  to  turn  inward  and  explore  the  depths  of 
reason  and  feeling;  able  to  turn  outward,  search,  dis- 
cover, compare  all  objects  of  knowledge,  all  processes 
of  law.  It  is  the  power  of  memory,  able  to  traverse  the 
past  and  summon  it  into  the  present;  the  power  of 
aspiration,  able  to  soar  upward  into  the  ideal,  to  con- 
ceive abstractions  of  time  and  space,  to  climb  illimitable 
heights  of  beauty  and  fathom  depths  of  wisdom.  It  is 
the  power  of  ethical  judgment,  discerning  good  and 
evil,  conceiving  moral  perfection;  capable  of  rejoicing 
in  holiness,  of  experiencing  remorse,  the  tragic  converse 
of  moral  peace.  It  is  self-identical  power;  continuous, 
not  transitory;  consecutive,  not  intermittent ;  universal, 
not  sporadic.  Beholding  humanity  equipped  with  com- 
mon mental  life  enriched  by  these  distinctions,  and 
attributing  its  possession  of  this  equipment  to  the  In- 
finite Ground  and  Principle  of  Being,  underlying  all 
rational  consciousness,  the  higher  Christian  thinking 
arrives  at  the  certain  conclusion  that  these  measurable 
powers  of  rational  existence  which  belong  to  man  are 
projections  of  an  immeasurable  Consciousness,  an 
Infinite  Reason  and  Eternal  Mind;  a  Divine  Nature 
that  is  the  Sum  of  all  Perfections,  Source  of  all  Wisdom, 
Ideal  of  all  Beauty,  Seat  of  all  Justice,  Shrine  of  all 
Holiness,  Heart  of  all  Love ;  the  Father  of  Lights,  with 
Whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  that  is  cast  by 
turning ;  from  Whom  cometh  every  good  and  perfect  gift. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  79 

I  am  well  aware  that  many  a  noble  Indian  mind  will 
follow  me  approvingly  in  these  words,  and  will  share 
with  me  the  joy  of  attempting  to  delineate  in  terms  the 
beauty  of  God.  But  large  sections  of  the  highest  Ori- 
ental thinking  are  debarred  from  entering  into  the  rest, 
satisfaction,  and  ultimateness  with  which  the  Christian 
meditates  upon  God's  perfections,  by  reason  of  pressure 
brought  to  bear  through  the  philosophy  of  negation, 
which  is  fundamental  in  pure  pantheism.  Many  an 
Oriental,  gifted  by  God  with  powers  of  spiritual  discern- 
ment greatly  superior  to  my  own,  is  unable  to  share  my 
joy  in  the  contemplation  of  God,  although  qualified  both 
to  discern  and  to  enjoy  far  more  than  I,  because  of 
metaphysical  obligation  binding  him  to  seek  the  ulti- 
mate of  thought,  not  in  qualities,  however  beautiful,  not 
in  attributes,  however  glorious,  but  in  the  absence  of 
qualities  and  attributes,  in  pure  undifferentiated  Being. 
I  need  not  rehearse  to  Oriental  ears  the  formulas  of 
negation,  nor  dwell  upon  their  absorbing  influence  upon 
Eastern  metaphysic,  idealism,  character.  I  have  al- 
ready referred  to  this,  in  my  first  lecture,  as  one  of  the 
Elements  of  Sublimity  in  Oriental  Consciousness,  and 
I  intend  to  revert  to  it  in  my  last  lecture  as  one  of  those 
qualities  which  may  without  dishonour  or  distortion  be 
devoted  to  the  service  of  a  higher  Oriental  Christianity. 

But  at  this  point  I  wish  to  make  evident  that  the 
higher  Christian  thinking  is  far  from  indifferent  to  the 
implication  contained  in  that  august  conception  of  pure 
Being  which  for  a  thousand  generations  has  haunted  the 
Oriental  Consciousness,  like  the  travelling  echo  of  a 
word  spoken  in  an  eternal  past.     What  is  the  implica- 


8o  BARROWS  LECTURES 

tion  contained  in  that  conception  ?  Is  it  not  this  ?  As 
we  pursue  the  quest  for  God,  which,  be  the  cause  what 
it  may,  is  the  last  insatiate  instinct  of  the  soul,  we  pass 
beyond  all  attributes,  qualities,  notes  of  personality. 
We  come,  like  explorers  who  have  climbed  the  sunny 
heights  of  the  coast  range,  to  the  margin  of  an  un- 
fathomed,  uncharted  sea,  whereon  no  keel  has  ever 
moved,  whereon  impenetrable  mist  for  ever  hangs, 
whereon  we  have  no  means  nor  power  to  launch.  We 
gaze  out  upon  that  silent  sea :  we  call — no  sound  returns 
but  faint,  far-off  breathings  of  our  own  wandering  voice. 
Is  it  not  thus  one  may  describe  the  vision,  from  the  sum- 
mit of  the  highest  attributes,  which  are  the  coast  ranges 
of  the  Absolute,  the  vision  of  the  uncharted,  mist-hung 
ocean  of  Pure  Being?  This  thought  of  the  unsearch- 
ableness  of  God,  a  thought  demanded  alike  by  reason 
and  experience,  has  never  been  absent  from  a  true 
philosophy  of  that  religion  which,  coming  from  springs 
far  up  in  the  recesses  of  Asiatic  life,  flowed  down  into 
the  broad  river  of  the  Faith  of  Christ.  No  soul,  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  rudiments  of  religious  externalism 
into  even  the  less  esoteric  regions  of  Christian  thinking, 
has  dared  to  suppose  otherwise  than  that,  if,  like  ex- 
plorers, it  were  possible  for  us  to  climb  to  the  heights  of 
the  attributes  of  God's  personality,  we  should  but  gaze 
forth  upon  the  cloud  that  shrouds  from  all  eyes,  that 
veils  from  all  thought,  the  unknowable  Being  of  the 
Absolute.  To  suppose  that  the  whole  Essence  of  God 
can  be  described  in  terms  of  attribute  and  quality,  that 
the  whole  Essence  of  God  can  be  conceived  in  man's 
mind,  to  suppose  (be  the  word  spoken  with  reverence !) 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  8i 

that  it  lies  either  in  the  will  or  power  of  the  Infinite  to 
reveal  all  that  wherein  Infinity  consists  even  to  those 
finite  spirits  most  sensitive  and  obedient  to  His  imma- 
nent nature,  would,  for  an  enlightened  Christian,  mean 
to  be  under  the  veil  of  intellectual  ignorance  or  the  curse 
of  intellectual  pride.  That  which  the  philosophy  of  the 
Indo-Aryan  consciousness  has  called  pure  Being  finds 
its  equivalent  in  Semitic  and  Christian  Consciousness 
in  the  inconceivability  and  unsearchableness  of  the 
Essence  of  Deity.  Tho  whole  background  of  Biblical 
thought  is  an  unspeakable  sense  of  man's  impotency  to 
conceive  the  depths  of  the  Godhead  that  lie  behind  those 
measurable  revelations  which  come  within  the  scope  of 
finite  consciousness.  From  the  Old  Testament  comes 
to  us  that  word  which  is  like  a  grave  rebuke  to  all  who 
have  dared  to  assume  the  utter  knowableness  of  God : 
"  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ?  Canst 
thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  perfection?  It  is 
as  high  as  heaven ;  what  canst  thou  do  ?  deeper  than 
hell ;  what  canst  thou  know  ?  The  measure  thereof  is 
longer  than  the  earth,  and  broader  than  the  sea.'" 
From  the  New  Testament  come  those  yet  more  solemn 
voices  that  tell  us  not  only  of  the  mist-hung  ocean  of 
Unknowable  Being,  but  of  One,  emerging  from  that 
mist  as  an  Only-Begotten  from  a  Father,  bringing  us  as 
much  of  the  higher  knowledge  as  our  spirits  can  con- 
tain: "No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  the  Only- 
Begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He 
hath  declared  Him."^  "King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords,  dwelling  in  light  unapproachable;    Whom  no 

I  Job  11:7,  8,  9.  2  John  1:18. 


82  BARROWS  LECTURES 

man  hath  seen  nor  can  see;  to  Whom  be  honour  and 
power  eternal!"'  Is  not  an  analogy  to  the  instinctive 
religious  sense  of  God's  unsearchable  Being  beginning 
to  dawn  upon  us  of  this  modern  age,  in  our  clearer  sense 
of  the  unsearchable  element  in  ourselves  ?  Researches 
of  the  science  of  psychology  have  contributed  toward 
unifying  all  higher  religious  thinking  in  ways  which,  I 
venture  to  believe,  shall  yet  be  more  generally  appre- 
ciated and  applied  than  at  present.  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  psychology  has  made,  or  can  make,  clear  the 
mystery  of  the  Divine  Essence.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply 
that  psychology  has  lifted,  or  ever  may  lift,  the  veil  of 
mist  that  hangs  above  that  silent  ocean  of  Being  stretch- 
ing beyond  the  coast-line  of  its  knowable  qualities  and 
attributes.  I  mean  to  say  that  psychology  has  drawn 
our  attention  to  facts  connected  with  our  own  life  which 
make  real  to  us  the  solemn  truth  that  we  do  not  know 
even  ourselves.  We  see  but  dimly  down  into  regions 
of  consciousness  that  lie  below  thought  or,  to  state  it  in 
the  opposite  relation,  that  rise  above  thought.  To  this 
region  of  man's  esoteric  selfhood  modern  science  has 
given  the  name  subliminal,  or  sub-conscious  self:  the 
self  that  lives  in  us  below  the  threshold  of  our  organised 
and  related  consciousness,  where,  in  all  life's  common 
affairs,  we  are  to  ourself  both  subject  and  object,  that 
is,  both  the  one  thinking  and  the  one  thought  about. 
Thus,  for  example,  it  is  possible  for  me,  as  subject,  to 
think  about  my  own  thoughts  as  object ;  to  analyse  and 
ponder  them;  to  determine  whether  they  are  good  or 
bad  thoughts  that  I  should  retain  or  put  away.     But 

1 1  Tim.  6;  15,  16. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  83 

below  that  level  of  organised  consciousness  there  are 
the  unfathomable  depths  of  the  "buried  life.'*  In  that 
sub-conscious  life  we  are  only  subject — not  subject  and 
object;  do  not  consciously  think  as  in  our  upper  and 
ordinary  life.  We  only  know  that  we  have  that  mar- 
vellous depth  in  our  soul;  subjectively  we  know  that 
there  we  are,  perhaps  more  really  and  ultimately  than 
anywhere  else,  our  true  self,  our  very  self.  But  what 
we  are,  and  to  what  depths  in  the  buried  life  of  God  our 
depths  have  access,  we  have  no  power  to  put  into  words. 
Sometimes,  when  floating  on  a  pellucid  stream,  one 
will  look  far  down  and,  for  an  instant,  see  dimly  waving 
in  some  lower  current,  unfelt  upon  the  surface,  the  long 
tresses  of  submarine  grasses,  the  bowing  plumes  of 
ferns.  So,  in  rare  moments  of  spiritual  insight,  when 
the  eye  of  introspection  is  purged  of  mote  and  beam, 
and  the  calm  soul  is  pellucid  and  crystalline  in  the  peace 
of  God,  we  seem  to  see,  waving  and  beckoning  far  below 
the  soundings  of  reason,  suggestions  of  an  Infinite  Life 
in  which  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  Swiftly 
those  suggestions  vanish  unanalysed,  untraced,  uncom- 
prehended,  and,  looking  down  again,  we  see  only  the 
darkness  of  undifferentiated  life.  Is  there  no  analogy 
here  to  help  us  to  lift  up  our  eyes  and  look  upon  the 
deep  things  of  God  ?  Upon  the  surface  are  evidences 
of  all  that  God  is,  in  holy  character,  holy  purpose,  holy 
love.  And  so  much  as  we  are  able  to  grasp  He  gra- 
ciously permits  us  to  receive  and,  that  we  may  receive 
more  than  our  unaided  effort  could  discern,  He  pro- 
jects upon  us,  out  of  the  depth  in  Christ,  Who  is,  to  use 
the  noble  imagery  of  the  Gospel,  as  a  Son  emerging 


84  BARROWS  LECTURES 

from  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  a  far  profounder  self- 
revelation.  But  as  in  our  own  selves,  familiar  as  we 
are  with  all  our  ordinary  states  of  consciousness,  there 
are  abysses  of  pure  being,  underlying  the  discriminating 
power  of  thought,  extending  down  into  the  unknown, 
must  there  not  be,  in  the  Infinite  Ground  and  Source  of 
all  existence,  by  Whom  all  things  consist,  depths  un- 
plumbed  by  any  line  of  human  wisdom,  undreamed  of 
by  any  finite  imagination?  Yet  that  abyss  in  God 
which  has  been  called  Pure  Being,  the  Absolute,  is  no 
more  incompatible  with  the  rational  and  moral  Person- 
ality of  the  Absolute,  than  is  the  lesser  abyss  of  the 
subliminal  consciousness  in  ourselves  incompatible  with 
our  possession  of  reason,  conscience,  will,  affection, 
and  every  note  of  personality.  How  then  does  this 
unfathomable  yet  personal  God  bear  witness  in  the 
soul  ?  Most  naturally,  and  in  accord  with  the  relation 
of  being  between  the  soul  and  Himself. 

Permit  me  now,  as  an  exponent  of  the  higher  Chris- 
tian thinking,  to  speak  of  three  modes  peculiar  to  the 
mystical  or  inner  life,  through  which  the  Divine  witness 
in  the  soul  is  realised.  I  attach  to  these  modes  the 
ancient  names  endeared  to  the  Christian  Consciousness 
by  two  thousand  years  of  experience:  the  still,  small 
Voice  or  Divine  witness  through  Conscience;  the  Sure 
Word  of  Prophecy  or  Divine  witness  through  Truth; 
the  Christ  of  God  or  Divine  witness  through  Personal 
Incarnation.  I  may  remind  you  that  in  the  preced- 
ing lecture,  on  the  Mystical  Element  in  the  Christian 
Religion,  I  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  Christian 
mysticism  has  found  expression  in  the  two  spheres  of 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  85 

consciousness,  objective  and  subjective.  In  the  objective 
sphere  it  has  felt  God  present  in  His  world,  found  Him 
in  His  works,  touched  the  hem  of  His  garment  through 
perceiving  the  universe  to  be  an  outward  expression  of 
God's  infinite  vitality.  This  objective  sense  of  God  is 
but  the  vestibule  of  the  mystical  element.  The  temple 
is  within.  Unseen  by  mortal  is  the  sacred  place  of  the 
Most  High,  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  in  which  the 
Christian  mystic  attains  the  homing  of  the  soul.  There 
are  moments  in  the  life  of  every  soul  when  the  outward 
suggestions  of  God  in  nature  convey  no  sufficing  mes- 
sage to  the  innermost  spirit.  They  seem  inadequate. 
Their  objectivity  seems  resounding  emptiness.  God 
seems  not  to  be  in  them.  It  is  because  the  subliminal 
depths  within  the  soul  demand  more  intimate  com- 
munion with  their  Source  and  Ground.  In  one  of  the 
Old  Testament  historical  books'  it  is  related  that  the 
prophet  Elijah,  overwhelmed  with  responsibility  and 
solicitude,  fainted  inwardly  beneath  his  burden  and 
flung  himself  upon  the  ground  in  despair.  In  vain  were 
given  him  assurances  of  God's  presence  in  the  world 
about  him:  they  seemed  but  emptiness;  one  voice  alone 
could  recall  the  absent  courage  and  redeem  the  van- 
quished faith :  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul.  Let  me 
read  to  you  this  glorious  record  of  the  supremacy  of  our 
inner  life. 

Elijah  came  unto  a  cave  and  lodged  there;  and,  behold,  the 
word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him,  and  He  said  unto  him,  What  doest 
thou  here,  Elijah  ?  And  he  said,  I  have  been  very  jealous  for  the 
Lord  God  of  hosts:  for  the  children  of  Israel  have  forsaken  Thy 

I  C/.  I  Kings,  chap.  19. 


86  BARROWS  LECTURES 

covenant,  thrown  down  Thine  altars,  slain  Thy  prophets  with  the 
sword;  and  I,  even  I,  only  am  left;  and  they  seek  my  life,  to  take 
it  away.  And  He  said,  Go  forth,  and  stand  upon  the  mount  be- 
fore the  Lord.  And,  behold,  the  Lord  passed  by,  and  a  great  and 
strong  wind  rent  the  mountains,  and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks 
before  the  Lord,  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  wind :  and  after  the 
wind  an  earthquake;  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake: 
and  after  the  earthquake  a  fire;  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire: 
and  after  the  fire  a  still,  small  voice.  And  it  was  so,  when  Elijah 
heard  it,  that  he  wrapped  his  face  in  his  mantle,  and  went  out,  and 
stood  in  the  entering  in  of  the  cave. 

That  face,  hidden  in  the  mantle,  is  the  symbol  of  man's 
involuntary  reverence  for  the  authority  of  the  still,  small 
Voice.  'WTien  he  hears  it,  he  knows  whence  it  comes. 
He  covers  his  face  and  listens.  ''Speak,  Lord,  for  Thy 
servant  heareth."  The  witness  of  the  still,  small  Voice 
is  universal.  Beneath  every  philosophy  and  form  of 
religion ;  beneath  tradition  and  race ;  mediated  through 
every  language  into  the  one  vernacular  of  the  soul,  it 
makes  itself  heard,  uttering  the  eternal  distinction  of 
right  and  wrong,  declaring  the  potential  claim  of  right- 
eousness, conveying  the  potential  sense  of  sin.  It  is  the 
voice  of  a  God  Who  cannot  be  silenced;  Who  has  not 
/  left  Himself  without  a  witness  in  any  soul  that  He  has 
made;  unto  Whom  all  hearts  are  open,  all  desires  known, 
and  from  Whom  no  secrets  are  hid.  We  speak  of  con- 
science sometimes  in  terms  which  appear  to  imply  that 
it  is  but  a  faculty  of  the  soul,  as  sight  or  hearing  are 
faculties  of  the  body.  When  we  consider  the  diseases 
of  conscience,  which  may  be  as  acute  and  as  loathsome 
as  diseases  of  the  flesh;  when  we  remember  the  health 
of  conscience,  which  is  an  estate  as  full  of  joy,  buoyancy, 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  87 

and  strength  as  physical  health,  we  perceive  that  con- 
science is  a  sensitive  and  powerful  faculty  that  works 
in  realms  where  physical  faculties  are  incapable  of 
working.  The  diseases  of  conscience  are  more  terrible 
than  leprosy.  It  may  become  deaf  to  the  Divine  wit- 
ness; blind  to  the  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong;  cor- 
rupt and  abominable  in  its  perverted  relation  to  desire; 
deceitful  and  cruel  in  its  sanctionings  of  conduct; 
paralysed  through  deliberate  misuse;  seared  as  with  a 
hot  iron.  Health  of  conscience  is  more  beautiful  than 
bodily  perfection.  It  is  the  virility  of  the  soul:  alert, 
well  balanced,  clear  eyed,  rejoicing  not  in  iniquity  but 
rejoicing  in  the  truth;  sane  in  judgment,  ruling  desire 
with  the  hand  of  right  reason ;  courageous  in  goodness ; 
happy  in  the  felicity  of  correspondence  with  the  eternal 
right.  Yet  conscience  is  without  significance  unless 
considered  in  relation  to  God ;  even  as  the  eye  is  without 
significance  unless  considered  in  relation  to  light;  the 
ear  in  relation  to  sound.  Conscience,  as  a  faculty,  is  the 
ear  of  the  soul,  by  means  of  which  the  still,  small  Voice 
may  be  heard.  Conscience,  as  a  fundamental  element 
of  rational  being,  is,  as  an  English  poet  has  declared, 
'^ God's  most  intimate  Presence  in  the  soul,"'  His  per- 
sonal voice  speaking  to  the  inner  ear  of  our  self-con- 
sciousness. In  this  consists  the  peculiar  sacredness  of 
conscience,  and  the  special  wrong  of  its  intentional  mis- 
use. It  is  a  faculty  lying  in  awful  proximity  to  those 
subliminal  depths  within  us,  of  which  we  can  give  little 
account,  yet  in  which  we  are  confident  the  ultimate  clue  to 
our  individuality  is  found  and  the  ultimate  participation 

I  C/.  Wordsworth,  The  Excursion,  Bk.  IV. 


88  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  our  nature  in  the  Divine  Nature  occurs.  Many  times, 
in  the  experience  of  those  whose  senses  are  trained  by  use 
to  discern  good  and  evil,  the  still,  small  Voice  sounds  in 
the  soul's  ear  in  tones  of  mystery.  Intimations  of  duty 
assert  themselves,  so  subtle  that  we  cannot  put  them 
into  words,  while  of  their  Divine  authority  we  have  no 
doubt ;  warnings  against  courses  of  conduct  that  to  our 
prejudiced  minds  seem  expedient,  yet  upon  which  the 
unformulated  verdict  of  conscience  sets  its  prohibition. 
There  is  but  one  adequate  explanation  of  these  phe- 
nomena. They  are  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul.  We 
become  most  aware  of  their  authority  when  we  set  our- 
selves to  violate  their  instructions.  We  become  aware 
of  the  objectivity  of  nature  when  we  oppose  ourselves  to 
it  in  volitions  that  ignore  its  reality.  We  attempt  to 
press  our  way  through  the  wall  of  rock ;  it  flings  us  back, 
bruised  and  bleeding.  We  essay  to  walk  on  the  sea  as 
on  a  floor  of  porphyry;  it  parts  and  engulfs  us.  We 
proudly  try  to  scale  the  topmost  pinnacle  of  Kinchin- 
janga;  the  heart  collapses  in  syncope,  under  atmos- 
pheric conditions  that  were  not  made  for  man.  So 
when  the  will  attempts  to  ignore  or  to  oppose  the  still, 
small  Voice  speaking  through  a  healthy  conscience, 
commanding  a  certain  act  of  right,  forbidding  a  certain 
act  of  wrong,  it  discovers  that  behind  that  Voice,  so 
gentle  and  still,  there  is  an  ideal  righteousness  asserting 
itself  in  majesty,  against  which  we  may  beat  ourselves 
into  insensibility,  but  over  which  we  cannot  prevail. 
Right  will  not  become  wrong  at  our  solicitation,  nor  will 
light  change  itself  to  darkness,  for  a  cloak  to  our  sin. 
In  the  higher  Christian  thinking,  the  still,  small  Voice 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  89 

fulfils  a  ministry  infinitely  more  broad  than  is  included  in 
His  elemental  and  universal  office,  through  conscience, 
of  incitement  to  right  conduct  and  admonition  against 
evil  doing.  Under  the  beautiful  titles.  Holy  Spirit  and 
Comforter,  are  intimated  possible  ministrations  of  com- 
panionship, suggestion,  counsel,  education,  guidance, 
illumination,  empowerment,  support,  comfort,  all  of 
which  are  modes,  verified  in  the  experience  of  two 
thousand  years,  in  which  the  witness  of  God  is  fulfilled 
in  souls  that  lend  themselves  trustfully  to  His  influence. 
Through  the  sub-conscious  depths  of  our  being,  where 
our  life  and  the  Infinite  Life  become  one.  His  influence 
finds  entrance  to  all  the  avenues  of  consciousness.  His 
very  Spirit,  life-making,  reasonable,  holy,  witnesses 
with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God.  From 
this  source  come  our  holy  desires,  appreciation  of  good- 
ness, recurrent  advances  in  spiritual  knowledge,  vigor- 
ous control  of  unruly  instincts  and  passions,  moral 
courage,  calmness  in  suffering,  self-restraint  in  sorrow. 
These,  in  their  several  relations  to  character,  produce 
growth,  symmetry,  strength,  sweetness  of  individu- 
ality. Nor  is  there  any  term  of  limit  beyond  which  this 
beneficent  action  of  God  within  the  soul  must  be 
discontinued.  Because  of  our  belief  in  the  origin  of 
the  soul,  as  projected  from  the  Infinite  Source  and 
Ground  of  Being,  we  believe  in  its  immortality  and 
in  the  immortality  of  the  ministrations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  To  those  who  respond  to  the  inward  witness 
of  sonship  by  walking  as  sons  of  God,  there  opens  a 
vista  of  eternal  progress :  an  inheritance  incorruptible, 
and  undefiled,   and  that   fadeth  not   away,   reserved 


90  BARROWS  LECTURES 

in  heaven  for  (them)  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of 
God."^ 

I  must  now  proceed  to  speak  of  a  second  mode 
through  which  the  Divine  witness  in  the  soul  is  realised : 
the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy  or  Divine  witness  through 
Truth.  God  speaks  to  the  inward  life  of  man  through 
truth  outwardly  declared.  From  the  earliest  ages  He 
has  made  special  approaches  to  individuals,  causing  the 
tide  of  knowledge  to  flow  through  their  sub-conscious 
life  with  such  power  that  they,  looking  down  as  into  the 
depths  of  a  stream,  saw  truth  and  the  relations  of  truth, 
not  visible  in  the  ordinary  states  of  consciousness.  This 
is  revelation  through  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 
They  who  have  received  it  have  given  utterance  to  the 
truth  and  to  its  relations,  as  they  saw  it  in  the  depths 
of  the  sub-conscious  life.  Many  others,  without  doubt, 
have  claimed  to  have  received  revelations,  and  have 
uttered  them  as  such.  The  credential,  whereby  the 
authenticity  of  revelation  is  distinguished  from  the  claim 
of  error,  is  not  outward  and  formal,  but  mystical  and 
inward,  the  verification  of  truth  in  the  souls  to  whom  it 
is  proclaimed.  It  is  the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy,  the 
self-verifying  of  truth,  vindicating  itself  in  the  soul  as 
the  witness  of  God,  by  producing  in  the  soul  the  effect  of 
God.  An  early  Christian  writer  thus  speaks :  "We  have 
the  word  of  prophecy  made  more  sure ;  whereunto  ye  do 
well  that  ye  take  heed,  as  unto  a  lamp  shining  in  a  dark 
place,  until  the  day  dawn  and  the  day  star  arise  in  your 
hearts.  For  no  prophecy  ever  came  by  the  will  of  man : 
but  men  spake  from  God,  being  moved  by  the  Holy 

'C/.  I  Peter  1:4,  5. 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  91 

Spirit."'  It  is  inspiring  to  reflect  upon  truth;  what  it 
is  and  what  it  does.  When  the  soul  of  a  true  man  under- 
stands what  the  nature  of  truth  is  in  itself,  he  bows 
down  before  it  in  reverence,  he  loves  it  with  a  mighty 
love.  For  truth  is  beautiful,  noble,  gloriously  fash- 
ioned, in  whatsoever  realm  it  be  found.  I  wonder  not 
that  artists  have  represented  truth  under  the  similitude 
of  the  most  beautiful  objects  to  be  found  in  nature,  or 
that  the  noblest  thought  of  the  ages  has  exerted  its 
highest  powers  worthily  to  describe  it,  or  that  the  uni- 
versities have  chosen  the  word  itself  (a  calm  and  stately 
word !)  for  their  motto,  lifting  it  up  before  the  eyes  of 
scholars  that  it  might  print  its  message  on  their  minds. 
It  may  be  a  long  time  before  one  comes  to  an  apprehen- 
sion of  what  truth  is,  in  its  own  right;  before  one 
separates  and  sets  off  from  the  self-sufficient  thing  itself 
the  various  lesser  ideas  that  custom  or  the  craft  of  man 
have  offered  as  its  equivalents.  One  may  suppose  that 
age  is  an  equivalent  of  truth,  that  that  which  has  out- 
lived generations  and  gathered  unto  itself  the  reverend 
aspects  of  antiquity  must,  of  necessity,  be  true.  Age  is 
venerable,  and  he  is  to  be  pitied  who  under  any  circum- 
stances speaks  lightly  of  it.  Yet  age,  great  continuity  in 
time,  may  or  may  not  coincide  with  truth.  It  con- 
tains no  inherent  guarantee  of  truth.  Truth  may  indeed 
be  ancient  as  the  everlasting  hills,  but  its  final  criterion 
and  evidence  must  be  sought  in  a  depth  where  time 
counts  for  little.  One  may  suppose  that  usage  is  an 
equivalent  of  truth;  that  wide  acceptance  of  ideas  there- 
by assures  their  validity.     Usage  is  a  sacred  thing:   I 

I  Cf.  II  Peter  1:19-21. 


92  BARROWS  LECTURES 

honour  whatever  thought  or  belief  has  received  the 
suffrage  of  great  numbers  of  my  fellow-men.  I  cannot 
turn  in  disrespect  from  anything,  the  use  of  which  is 
holy  to  another.  But  usage  can  be  no  certain  equiva- 
lent of  truth.  Truth  must  in  the  end  bring  usage,  but 
usage  need  not  in  the  end  bring  truth.  I  reverence 
usage,  yet  not  in  it  do  I  find  the  final  guarantee  of  truth. 
One  may  suppose  that  declarative  authority  is  an  equiva- 
lent of  truth;  that  the  assertions  of  men  clothed  with 
power,  or  the  declarations  of  books  issued  by  authority, 
can  establish  truth.  But  one  has  only  to  reflect  on  the 
contradictory  nature  of  such  utterances  to  feel  the  need 
of  some  method  of  verifying  truth,  less  provisional  and 
precarious  than  declaratory  authority.  A  happy  day, 
bright  with  the  prospect  of  peace,  dawns  in  his  life  who 
learns  to  hold  in  abeyance  the  witnesses  of  antiquity, 
usage,  and  authority,  as  ideas  separable  from  truth ;  to 
demand  not,  nor  rely  upon  as  final,  supplementary  and 
external  evidences,  but  to  turn  to  truth  itself,  as  it 
stands  before  us  in  perfect  beauty,  simplicity,  sincerity, 
and  ask  it  that  it  shall  verify  itself  1  Truth  is  very  simple. 
It  is  merely  the  thing  that  is,  as  distinguished  from  the 
thing  that  is  supposed  to  be,  and  is  not.  That  simpli- 
city gives  truth  its  beauty,  authority,  power.  How  can 
truth  verify  itself  ?  By  showing  that  it  is  the  thing  it 
is  supposed  to  be.  For  generations  it  was  held  as 
truth  that  the  earth  is  a  plane  not  a  sphere.  Antiquity, 
usage,  authority  were  all  on  that  side.  At  length  truth 
came  to  its  own  merely  by  showing  that  the  earth  is  a 
sphere  not  a  plane.  How  can  we  know  that  anything 
spoken  in  a  Scripture  is  truth?    By  the  Witness  of 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  93 

God  in  the  Soul  that  what  is  spoken  is  the  thing  that  is. 
For  example:  a  Scripture  says,  ^^The  Word  of  God  is 
living,  and  active,  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword, 
and  piercing  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and  spirit,  of  both 
joints  and  marrow  and  quick  to  discern  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  the  heart."'  In  Christian  experience 
this  is  found  to  be  the  truth.  When  God  is  suffered  to 
bear  His  witness  in  the  soul,  through  a  conscience  that 
is  morally  in  health.  He  reveals  us  to  ourselves.  He 
lays  bare  our  motives  to  the  inner  eye;  cuts,  as  with  a 
surgeon's  knife,  through  all  subterfuge  and  pretence; 
convicts  us  of  sin ;  humbles  us  and  makes  us  ashamed 
of  sin ;  brings  forth  in  us  the  desire  for  a  new  life.  This 
is  the  simple  truth,  verified  by  the  deepest  facts  in  the 
realm  of  life  to  which  this  truth  refers.  Antiquity, 
usage,  or  authority  might  declare  against  this,  but  the 
Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul  confirms  the  sure  word  of 
prophecy.  Again,  a  Scripture  says  concerning  prayer: 
"In  everything  by  prayer  and  supplication  with  thanks- 
giving let  your  request  be  made  known  unto  God,  and 
the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all  understanding  shall 
keep  your  hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus.  "^ 
How  do  I  know  that  this  is  true  ?  Not  from  antiquity 
usage,  nor  authority;  although  from  each  of  these 
sources  comes  a  powerful  corroboration.  But  I  know 
it  for  truth  by  the  witness  of  God  in  my  soul  confirming 
the  sure  word  of  prophecy.  Confused  with  doubt,  beset 
by  temptation,  oppressed  with  grief,  "weary  of  earth 
and  laden  with  my  sin,"  I  approach  in  perfect  confidence 
of  spirit  the  Divine  Ground  and  Source  of  my  existence. 

iHeb.  4:12.  2Phil.  4:6,  7. 


94  BARROWS  LECTURES 

As  a  troubled  child  confiding  in  a  trusted  Father,  I  pour 
my  personal  confidences  into  the  ear  of  that  Invisible 
Being  with  Whom  I  am  mysteriously  connected ;  and 
from  the  depths  of  my  sub-conscious  life  wells  up  into 
consciousness  a  calmness  of  spirit,  a  restored  equilib- 
rium, a  deliverance  from  oppression,  a  peace  of  God  of 
which  one  may  only  afhrm :  ^*  it  passeth  understanding." 
I  have  now  spoken  of  two  of  the  modes  through  which 
the  Divine  witness  in  the  soul  may  be  realised :  the  still, 
small  Voice;  the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy.  There  is  a 
third  and  greater  mode  of  this  mystical  witness:  it  is 
called  the  Christ  of  God,  or  Divine  witness  through 
Personal  Incarnation.  In  closing  this  lecture  I  shall 
make  only  a  preliminary  statement  concerning  Christ; 
reserving  the  treatment  of  the  theme  for  the  succeeding 
lecture.  The  preliminary  statement,  with  which  I  close, 
has  reference  to  two  matters  upon  which  I  must  permit 
myself  to  speak  in  a  few  sentences  with  an  earnestness 
of  conviction  born  of  my  passionate  love  for  my  subject 
and  admiration  for  the  Oriental  Consciousness.  The 
two  matters  are  these:  the  Divinity  of  Christ  and  the 
need  of  Oriental  co-operation  in  the  larger  interpreta- 
tion of  that  Divinity  to  the  world.  It  is  in  my  judg- 
ment inadequate  to  consider  the  Christian  religion  in 
any  light  that  excludes  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  I  am 
well  aware  of  excellent  ethical  systems  that  have  been 
developed  in  the  spirit  of  Christianity  with  the  Divinity 
of  Christ  excluded.  I  am  equally  aware  of  theological 
systems,  advocated  from  the  Christian  side,  that  placed 
in  prominence  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  yet  were  in  their 
spirit  narrow,  partisan,  and  prejudicial. J:-  I  speak  with 


WITNESS  OF  GOD  IN  THE  SOUL  95 

respect  of  every  attempt  to  incorporate  in  modem  life 
the  principles  associated  with  the  Christian  name ;  each 
contributes  something  that  strengthens  the  forces  of 
light  in  their  conflict  against  darkness.  Yet  it  remains 
true  that  he  who  undertakes  to  interpret  Christianity 
in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  understood  by  the  authors 
of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  sense  in  which  it  became 
the  delight  and  passion  of  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Fathers,  in  the  sense  in  which  it  took  and  held  possession 
of  the  West,  in  the  sense  in  which  it  controls  to-day 
the  most  religiously  effective  thinking  of  the  Christian 
world,  both  Eastern  and  Western,  must  not  only  take 
note  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  but  must  exalt  that 
Divinity  to  the  highest  plane  of  thought;  until  it  shall 
stand  not  for  the  apotheosis  of  humanity,  not  for  the 
deification  of  a  man,  but  for  the  projection  of  the  Divine 
Word  out  of  unfathomable  depths  of  Godhead,  into  the 
region  of  human  consciousness,  to  speak,  in  the  life  of 
a  Man,  unto  the  lives  of  all  men.  One  of  the  noblest  of 
the  New  Testament  documents  begins  with  language 
that  may  well  sum  up  my  present  thought : 

God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in  the  proph- 
ets by  divers  portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at  the  end  of 
these  days  spoken  unto  us  in  His  Son,  Whom  He  appointed  heir 
of  all  things,  through  Whom  also  He  made  the  worlds.  Who  being 
the  effulgence  of  His  glory,  and  the  very  image  of  His  substance, 
and  upholding  all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power,  when  He 
had  made  purification  of  sins,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high.' 

As  I  repeat  in  your  hearing  this  account  of  the  nature 
of  Christ  on  its  mystical  side,  and  then,  as  I  look  into 

iQ.  Heb.  1:1-3. 


96  BARROWS  LECTURES 

your  faces  and  recall  the  sublime  elements  of  the  Ori- 
ental Consciousness,  the  Contemplative  Life,  the  Pres- 
ence of  the  Unseen,  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being, 
Reverence  for  the  Sanctions  of  the  Past,  I  feel  intuitively 
the  correspondence  of  these  thoughts  with  your  power 
of  assimilation  and  interpretation.  And,  in  the  name 
of  the  world,  I  come  to  you,  sons  of  the  Eastern  sages, 
and  ask  you  to  take  Christianity,  to  assimilate  its 
essence  in  your  own  religious  consciousness,  and  lift  it, 
higher  than  ever  it  was  lifted  before,  in  the  thoughts  of 
men.  Tremendous  is  the  need  of  the  world  that  some 
power,  great  enough  in  intellectual  capacity,  fervent  and 
sensitive  enough  in  feeling,  confident  enough  of  the 
reality  of  the  Unseen,  eager  enough  to  find  emancipa- 
tion in  the  knowledge  of  God,  shall  be  raised  up  in  the 
earth  to  take  the  Christian  religion  with  the  joy  of  dis- 
covery, to  pour  into  the  interpretation  of  it  the  pent-up 
enthusiasm  of  waiting  generations,  to  bring  to  light 
the  imperishable  freshness  of  its  essence,  to  deliver  it 
from  the  perilous  weight  of  ponderous  forms,  to  restore 
unto  it  the  high  spirituality  of  the  first  Christian  age. 

Where  shall  a  power  be  found,  endowed  with  capacity 
for  a  work  at  once  so  august  and  so  urgent,  if  it  be  not 
found  in  the  Oriental  Consciousness !  Europe  launched 
her  crusades  Eastward  to  snatch  the  tomb  of  Christ 
from  the  hands  of  Orientals.  May  the  day  come  when 
a  Christian  East  shall  launch  her  crusades  Westward, 
not  to  seize  a  tomb,  but  to  proclaim  a  resurrection,  and 
to  plant  the  banner  of  Christ's  Cross  on  higher  ground ! 


LECTURE  FOUR 

THE  WITNESS   OF  THE   SOUL  TO   GOD 

I  ended  the  preceding  lecture  by  summing  up  results 
reached  at  that  point.  It  appeared  that  after  laying 
down  J  in  terms  of  the  higher  Christian  thinking,  a  ra- 
tional basis  on  which  to  establish  the  conception  of  a 
Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul,  I  had  proceeded  to  state 
three  modes,  peculiar  to  the  inner  or  mystical  life,  in 
which  that  witness  is  known  by  human  consciousness: 
the  still,  small  Voice,  the  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy,  the 
Christ  of  God.  Of  the  first  and  second  modes  I  spoke 
with  some  fulness.  The  still,  small  Voice  is  God's 
most  intimate  and  universal  witness  in  man,  speaking, 
in  the  inner  ear  of  conscience,  commandments  of  right- 
eousness; and,  as  the  Holy  Spirit  or  Comforter,  accom- 
plishing, for  each  responsive  soul,  ministrations  of 
companionship,  suggestion,  counsel,  education,  guid- 
ance, illumination,  empowerment,  support,  comfort. 
The  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy  is  the  manifestation  of  Truth 
in  the  souls  of  those  to  whom  it  is  communicated.  It 
is  Truth's  verification  of  itself  in  rational  consciousness; 
the  demonstration  to  the  innermost  self  of  Truth's 
beauty,  simplicity,  sincerity.  It  may  be  corroborated 
or  denied  by  antiquity,  usage,  authority;  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Truth  in  the  soul  is  final,  the  correspondence  of 
the  thing  spoken  with  the  thing  that  is.  Of  the  third 
mode  of  Divine  witness,  namely,  the  Christ  of  God,  I  but 
prepared  the  way  to  speak  in  this  lecture.     I  confined 

97 


98  BARROWS  LECTURES 

myself  to  two  preliminary  matters ;  which  were  spoken 
of,  in  closing,  with  an  earnestness  of  conviction  prompted 
by  my  love  for  the  subject  and  my  admiration  for  the 
Oriental  Consciousness.  These  matters  had  reference 
to  the  Divinity  of  Christ  and  the  need  of  Oriental  co-op- 
eration in  the  larger  interpretation  of  that  Divinity  to 
the  world.  I  expressed  the  conviction  that  it  is  inade- 
quate to  consider  the  Christian  religion  in  any  light 
that  excludes  the  Divinity  of  Christ;  that  if  anyone 
shall  undertake  to  interpret  Christianity  in  the  sense 
in  which  it  was  understood  by  the  authors  of  the  New 
Testament  and  by  the  Fathers  of  the  second  century 
and  in  the  sense  in  which,  to-day,  it  controls  the  most 
religiously  effective  thinking  of  the  Christian  world, 
he  must  not  only  take  note  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
but  exalt  that  Divinity  to  the  highest  plane  of  thought. 
I  stated  my  belief,  which  is  confirmed  by  each  additional 
day  spent  in  conference  with  Eastern  minds,  that  the 
Oriental  Consciousness,  by  virtue  of  its  sublime  elements 
on  the  mystical  side,  is  qualified  to  discharge  for  the 
world  a  service  of  which  it  stands  in  need.  The  world 
needs  the  impulse  of  minds  approaching  the  Christian 
religion  untrammelled  by  the  ponderous  mass  of  Western 
forms;  endowed  with  ardour  and  passion,  with  insight 
and  intellectual  capacity,  with  vast  assurance  of  the 
unseen,  with  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge  of  God. 
The  world  needs,  specifically,  the  impulse  of  such 
minds,  to  reaffirm  as  a  controlling  force  in  the  Christian 
religion  that  which  was  its  pristine  glory,  the  mystical 
apprehension  of  the  Christ  of  God. 

The  Oriental  Consciousness  generates  such  minds: 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  99 

the  wealth  of  your  soul-quality  produces  them.  You 
have  what  the  world  needs,  what  the  world  waits  for. 
Can  you  wonder  then,  my  friends,  if  I,  a  lover  of  the 
world,  come  to  you  and  summon  you,  in  Christ's  Name ! 
Should  I  apologise  for  speaking  thus,  to  men  of  other 
faiths?  I  cannot,  without  the  crime  of  insincerity. 
The  truth  that  is  in  your  several  faiths  cannot  be  shaken 
by  your  assimilation  of  the  faith  of  Christ.  Truth 
never  casts  out  truth,  it  casts  out  only  error  and  what- 
soever else  has  served  its  purpose  fully  and  is  ready  to 
depart.  It  has  ever  been  that  when  God  needs  men 
He  calls  them,  making  it  possible  for  them  to  follow  His 
bidding  without  dishonour  to  any  truth.  Christ  called 
Jews  to  be  Christian  Apostles.  They  obeyed  and 
carried  with  them  in  Christianity,  for  its  enriching,  all 
that  was  true  and  eternal  in  Judaism,  leaving  behind 
only  that  which  had  served  its  end  and  fulfilled  its 
course.  Twenty  centuries  have  passed.  Many  world 
conditions  have  changed.  New  conditions  bring  new 
needs.  To-day  the  greatest  religious  need  of  the  world 
is  for  a  Christianity  deepened  and  spiritualised  through 
the  recovery  of  elements  germane  to  the  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness, and  best  interpreted  thereby.  This  world 
is  God's  world,  and  whatsoever  great  need  arises  in  the 
world  implies  God's  summons  to  those  who  have  the 
means  to  meet  that  need.  Famine  in  India  summons 
the  wealth  of  America.  Perilous  overgrowth  of  the 
external  in  religion  summons  whatsoever  race  conscious- 
ness is  most  rich  in  powers  of  spiritual  discernment,  most 
eager  for  the  unseen  treasures.  To  this  conviction  my 
soul  is  committed.     I  have  come  across  the  world  to 


lOO  BARROWS  LECTURES 

express  it.  It  is  a  conviction  born  of  God,  expressed 
on  His  behalf.  The  depth  of  my  conviction  I  may  best 
convey  to  you  in  the  words  of  an  American  poet : 

All  my  emprises  have  been  filled  with  Thee, 

My  speculations,  plans,  begun  and  carried  on  in  thoughts  of  Thee, 

Sailing  the  deep  or  journeying  the  land  for  Thee, 

Intentions,  purports,  aspirations  mine,  leaving  results  with  Thee; 

O,  I  am  sure  they  really  come  from  Thee, 

The  urge,  the  ardour,  the  unconquerable  will. 

The  potent,  felt,  interior  command,  stronger  than  words, 

A  message  from  the  Heavens  whispering  to  me  even  in  sleep; 

These  sped  me  on.' 

In  order  that  your  minds  may  be  prepared  for  what 
I  have  to  say  concerning  Christ,  I  must  ask  you  to 
enter  upon  some  consideration  of  the  special  subject 
of  this  lecture,  namely:  ''the  Witness  of  the  Soul  to 
God."  For  those  who  accept  in  any  form  a  monistic 
philosophy  there  is  little  difficulty  in  believing  that  the 
soul  of  man  gives,  out  of  itself,  consciously  or  sub-con- 
sciously, witness  to  God.  God  makes  Himself  felt  and 
heard  in  the  soul  by  His  immanent  presence.  He  is 
the  Ground  and  Source  of  finite  existence  as  the  sun 
is  the  ground  and  source  of  light.  When  (if  I  may  use 
the  common  terms  of  speech)  the  sun  rises,  our  atmos- 
phere is  filled  with  light,  and  every  object  lying  in  the 
open  atmosphere  is  bathed  in  light.  That  there  should 
be  a  witness  of  God  in  the  soul  appears  to  be  necessary, 
in  the  nature  of  things.  He  is  the  active  principle  of 
life  in  us,  and  we  feel  His  activity  both  in  our  bodies, 
through  all  the  phenomena  of  vitality,  and  in  our  souls, 

I  WfflTMAN,  "Prayer  of  Columbus." 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  lOi 

through  modes  appropriate  to  spiritual  consciousness. 
It  appears  to  be  no  less  necessary,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
that  the  soul  shall  give  witness  to  God.  For  the  soul 
lives  in  God  even  as  God  lives  in  the  soul;  its  life  in 
God  is  the  most  elemental  and  essential  fact  connected 
with  its  existence.  As  our  bodily  organs  give  appro- 
priate witness  to  the  elements  with  which  they  are  sever- 
ally related,  the  lungs  expanding  with  the  inrush  of  air, 
the  heart  pulsating  with  the  inrush  of  blood,  the  pupil 
of  the  eye  contracting  with  the  inrush  of  light,  so  the 
soul  gives  witness  in  many  forms  of  consciousness,  and 
in  sensations  too  profound  for  conscious  organisation, 
to  that  Infinite  with  which  its  life  is  inseparably  con- 
joined. Those  many  forms  and  sensations  of  soul-action 
can  all  be  grouped  under  one  word :  perhaps  the  noblest 
word  in  the  whole  vocabulary  of  the  finite  individual: 
religion.  Professor  William  James  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, in  the  Gifford  Lectures  on  Natural  Religion  before 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  has  given  a  broad  and 
helpful,  though  essentially  incomplete,  definition  of 
religion:  "Religion  shall  mean  for  us  the  feelings,  acts, 
and  experiences  of  individual  men  in  their  solitude,  so 
far  as  they  apprehend  themselves  to  stand  in  relation 
to  whatever  they  may  consider  the  divine.'"  In  this 
form  of  soul-action  we  must  include  under  the  term 
religion,  interpreting  that  term  broadly  and  incompletely, 
not  only  the  witness  of  consciousness  to  the  concrete 
deities  of  polytheism,  or  to  the  transcendent  deity  of 
Islam,  or  to  the  immanent  personal  presence  of  Christian 

^  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience  (ed.  Longmans,  London,  1902), 
P-3I- 


I02  BARROWS  LECTURES 

monism,  or  to  the  impersonal  absolute  of  Higher  Hin- 
duism, but  also  the  atheistic  idealism  of  the  Higher 
Buddhism  and  all  unformulated  conceptions  of  the 
spiritual  structure  of  the  universe,  which  bear  witness 
on  the  negative  side  to  idealistic  tendency.  Whatever 
reverential  feeling  is  coupled  with  the  sense  of  infinity, 
be  it  that  which  seems  abstractedly  godlike  or  that 
which  is  adored  as  deity,  partakes  of  the  nature  of  reli- 
gion. '  I  do  not  regard  the  definition  just  quoted  as  a 
complete  definition  of  religion  inasmuch  as  it  contains 
no  explicit  reference  to  ethical  consciousness  of  the 
Infinite,  and  this,  as  I  hope  to  show  later  in  my  lecture, 
is  not  only  the  crowning  element  in  the  most  fully  devel- 
oped forms  of  religion,  but  must  be  found  to  exist  in 
principle,  even  though  imperfect  in  quality  and  perhaps 
distorted  in  mode  of  expression,  in  any  system  of  think- 
ing, before  we  can  with  entire  justice  describe  that  sys- 
tem as  a  religion.  Out  of  this  soul-action  in  relation 
to  God,  realised  inwardly  by  individuals,  have  grown 
all  systems  of  belief  and  of  churchmanship.  With  the 
outward  forms  of  these  systems  we  are  not  at  present 
concerned.  For  the  moment  let  us  dwell  on  the  impor- 
tance and  value  of  the  inward  facts  involved.  An  ade- 
quate sense  of  the  significance  of  religion  as  a  mark  of 
man's  nobility  is  often  lost  beneath  inadequate  expla- 
nations offered  as  final  by  those  who  have  investigated 
this  phenomenon  from  a  naturalistic  point  of  view.  I 
use  the  term  in  no  disparaging  sense.  I  need  not  go 
over  the  ground,  which  must  be  familiar  to  many  of  you, 
especially  as  I  had  the  privilege  to  traverse  it  somewhat 

I  C/.  James,  op.  cit.,  pp.  31-34. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  103 

in  my  former  series  of  Barrows  Lectures  in  India,  by 
means  of  a  lecture  on  "The  Nature  of  Religion."  Some 
have  traced  the  origin  of  the  religious  instinct  to  fear 
in  the  presence  of  alarming  powers  of  nature;  others 
to  ancestor  worship  and  progressive  deification  of  the 
dead;  others  to  animistic  instinct  bom  of  dreams  and 
dread  of  the  unknown,  stimulating  the  imagination  to 
depict  surrounding  objects  as  inhabited  by  spirits;  others, 
as  von  Hartmann,  to  pessimism  caused  by  the  misery 
of  the  world.  In  the  evolution  of  the  human  species 
these  influences  have  operated  to  deepen  religious  feeling ; 
but,  as  I  consider  the  beneficent  and  glorifying  effects 
upon  men  of  that  religion  with  which  I  am  most  familiar, 
and  upon  which  I  may  therefore  with  least  impropriety 
set  an  estimate,  I  venture  to  be  sure  that  no  such  source 
by  itself  could  have  produced  that  religion.  It  has 
transformed  the  character  of  many  persons,  so  that 
they  may  be  described  as  born  anew,  has  controlled 
disordered  communities  and  furnished  them  with  fresh 
ideals.  It  has  permeated  arts  and  developed  litera- 
tures. It  has  interpreted  and  applied  the  love  of  God. 
These  things  I  say  from  knowledge,  as  a  Christian.  I 
hope  that  those  experienced  in  other  faiths  can  present 
similar  testimony.  Christ,  in  an  aphorism  almost  pro- 
verbial, said:  "Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or 
figs  of  thistles?  A  good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil 
fruit,  neither  can  a  corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit."' 
I  cannot  believe  that  such  a  religion  as  the  Christian 
religion,  with  its  good  fruit,  can  spring  from  any  source 
such  as  these  that  I  have  named.     Whatever  truth 

I  Matt.  7:16,  18. 


I04  BARROWS  LECTURES 

there  is  in  man's  religious  experience  springs  from  that 
which  is  noblest  in  himself;  his  oneness  of  nature  with 
the  Infinite  Ground  and  Source  of  Being.  The  thorns 
and  thistles  of  religion  spring  from  other  roots. 

Upon  such  a  theory  of  the  final  source  of  religion, 
its  message  to  us,  as  the  deepest  fact  of  experience, 
should  be  a  grand  message.  It  should  enable  us  to 
understand  and  appreciate  ourselves.  To  have  some 
conception  of  what  we  are  on  our  finer  side  is  an  incen- 
tive to  noble  living.  To  think  meanly  of  ourselves  as 
worms  of  the  dust  is  an  incentive  either  to  hyprocrisy 
or  to  despair.  The  attempt  to  promote  such  self -depre- 
ciation as  a  frame  of  mind  appropriate  to  religion  was 
one  of  the  futile  efforts  of  deistic  thinking,  now,  happily, 
becoming  obsolete.  God  was  represented  as  a  King, 
dwelling  sumptuously  in  His  palace  of  power;  man, 
a  beggar  crouching  at  the  gate.  Religion  was  under- 
stood to  signify  abasement,  self-loathing,  consuming 
sense  of  belittlement.  In  proportion  as  the  dualistic 
abyss  between  God  and  man  could  be  conceived  in 
terms  of  width  and  depth,  religious  feeling  was  satis- 
fied. It  was  the  logical  conclusion  of  such  thoughts 
to  invest  God  with  the  garment  of  wrath,  the  lurid  light 
of  anger  on  His  countenance,  the  purpose  of  destruction 
in  His  heart;  to  portray  man  as  the  debased  and  helpless 
object  of  that  anger,  seeking  by  gifts  and  sacrifices  to 
elude  an  unhappy  fate.  I  shall  show  you  that,  in  the 
higher  Christian  thinking,  there  is  not  only  a  place  for 
humiliation  and  self-loathing,  but  that  the  practise  of 
penitence  is  engendered  by  man's  highest  estimate  of 
his  own  value.     Pharisaic  self-righteousness  is  an  evil 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  105 

fruit  of  deism;  the  worm  lifting  up  its  head  in  prepos- 
terous vanity.  Christian  humiliation,  the  sacrifice  of  a 
contrite  spirit,  is  born  of  the  sense  of  greatness  used 
unworthily.  The  message  of  the  religious  instinct  to 
our  own  personal  consciousness  is,  then,  the  grandest 
of  messages.  It  draws  attention  to  the  irrepressible 
nature  of  ethical  desire.  The  flesh  cannot  satisfy:  the 
gratification  of  physical  impulse  has  no  adequacy  in 
itself  to  content  the  soul.  Injured  and  outraged,  as 
one  foully  dealt  with,  the  soul  recoils  with  a  cry  of  indig- 
nation from  the  moment  of  indulgence  and  bends  with 
more  severe  intention  toward  the  goal  of  righteousness. 
Ethical  desire  is  the  only  immortal  form  of  desire  known 
to  the  soul.  To  objects  of  sense  that  attracted  us  in 
youth  we  may  grow  cold;  of  intellectual  striving  that 
once  appealed  to  ambition  we  may  grow  weary;  even 
the  face  of  nature  that  once  seemed  beautiful  may  be 
changed  for  us  by  grief,  but  the  goodness  of  good  re- 
mains, a  thing  to  be  wished  for  eternally.  Do  we  ask, 
why  this  invincible  persistence  of  ethical  desire  ?  There 
is  one  sufficient  answer :  In  ourselves  we  share  the  nature 
of  the  Utterly  Good.  To  this  I  shall  refer  more  fully 
later. 

The  message  of  the  religious  instinct  to  our  personal 
consciousness  draws  attention  also  to  the  inadequacy 
of  material  conditions  as  a  ground  of  contentment. 
Each  age,  as  it  comes,  developes  an  element  of  thought 
in  opposition  to  a  spiritual  view  of  the  universe.  This 
element  takes  up  its  ground  on  the  materialistic  side 
and  undertakes  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  being 
within  the  bounds  of  matter.     I  feel  the  great  debt  of 


io6  BARROWS  LECTURES 

religion  to  materialistic  and  naturalistic  thought.  It 
supplies  an  indispensable  quality  in  balanced  reasoning. 
It  administers  sharp  and  salutary  rebuke  to  mysticism 
of  the  apathetic  type  that  tends  to  part  with  ethical 
distinctions  in  self-abandonment  to  infatuated  sub- 
jectivity. Materialists,  impatient  of  the  subjective, 
scorning  its  alleged  criteria,  knowing  no  substance  but 
matter,  crowding  all  thought-action  against  the  stone 
wall  of  the  physical  test,  render  to  the  religious  con- 
sciousness, over-inclined  to  dreams,  the  rude  kindness 
of  the  physician  who  strikes  a  patient  to  save  him  from 
relapse  into  stupor.  But,  as  our  knowledge  of  personal- 
ity advances,  pure  materialism,  as  an  explanation  of 
life,  is  found  to  represent  so  small  a  part  of  the  world's 
profound  conviction  and  to  account  for  so  small  a  pro- 
portion of  life's  profound  experience,  that,  when  it 
declares  itself  able  to  account  for  all,  it  must  be  regarded 
as  an  eccentricity,  if  not  as  an  obsession.  For  we  have 
seen,  and  nowhere  is  the  sight  more  witnessed  than  in 
India,  those  whom  poverty  or  voluntary  renunciation 
of  goods  leaves  in  a  material  estate  of  privation,  yet 
over  whom  the  spirit  of  discontent  has  no  power.  Rich 
in  possessions  of  the  soul,  indifferent  to  material  for- 
tune, they  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency 
of  higher  knowledge  vouchsafed  in  the  realm  of  the 
spirit.  With  such,  poverty  is  wealth.  Disburdened 
of  material  accretions,  they  are  at  leisure  to  enjoy  and 
use  the  opulence  of  the  soul.  Also  we  have  seen  sur- 
feit of  possessions  with  hungerings  of  the  soul :  a  being 
to  whom  wealth  is  multiplied,  with  scarcity  of  peace 
as  by  an  ironical  decree  of  fate ;  a  sated  body  mocking 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  107 

the  Starvation  of  spirit;  hands  grasping  more  than  they 
can  hold;  heart  fainting  for  the  Bread  of  God.  The 
Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God  has  no  more  pathetic  demon- 
stration than  in  those  whose  importunate  prayer  for 
peace  goes  up  amidst  scenes  of  splendour  that  are  the 
envy  of  common  minds.  Once  more:  the  message  of 
the  religious  instinct  to  our  personal  consciousness 
draws  attention  to  our  intuitive  sense  of  participation 
in  the  Divine  purpose  as  well  as  in  the  Divine  life. 
Mr.  AUanson  Picton,  in  his  essay  on  "The  Essential 
Nature  of  Religion,"  defined  religion  in  well-chosen 
words  as  "being  in  its  essential  nature  an  endeavour 
after  a  practical  expression  of  man's  conscious  relation 
to  the  Infinite."'  Why  this  endeavour  after  practical 
expression  of  the  conscious  relation  to  God?  Why 
is  man  not  content  with  knowledge  of  the  relation  and 
its  scientific  analysis?  Why  must  he  go  beyond  this 
and  demand  practical  participation  in  the  purpose  of 
that  life  of  which  he  is  a  part,  entering,  as  a  Biblical 
Psalmist  has  nobly  put  it,  into  "the  secret  of  the  Lord"  ? 
The  answer  is  found  in  the  necessary  unity  of  conscious- 
ness. If  in  my  most  intimate  friendships  I  discover 
my  psychic  unity  with  those  I  love,  it  is  necessary  for 
me  to  give  practical  expression  to  that  sense  of  unity 
by  entering  into  their  purposes,  sharing  their  feelings, 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  merging  my  life  in  theirs.  Much 
more  must  the  unifying  impulse  possess  me  when  I 
realise  a  relationship  that  is  not  objective  but  subjective : 
an  Infinite  Life  in  me,  which  is  also  my  life,  even  as 
Christ  said  of  His  disciples,  "  I  in  them  and  they  in  Me." 

^  C/.  The  Mystery  of  Matter  (ed.  Macmillan,  London,  1873),  p.  216. 


io8  BARROWS  LECTURES 

It  is  not  enough  that  I  shall  know  the  fact  of  unity  with 
the  Infinite,  of  which  my  religious  instinct  informs  me. 
Knowing  it,  nevermore  can  I  be  as  if  I  knew  it  not. 
Henceforth  that  knowledge  is  in  me,  "the  master  light 
of  all  my  seeing.''  And  the  zeal  of  the  soul  must  be 
to  enter  into  practical  co-operation  with  that  Eternal 
Will  of  Goodness  to  which  it  is  inseparably  conjoined. 
So  Picton  says: 

Religion  is  not  the  intellectual  formulation  of  that  conscious- 
ness (of  relation  to  the  Infinite),  for  this  is  properly  the  work 
of  philosophy.  But  religion  aims  rather  at  expression  in  the 
language  of  the  heart.  And  if  I  use  the  epithet  "practical,"  it  is  not 
because  I  would  confine  the  idea  of  religion  to  deeds  of  devotion 
or  acts  of  worship,  though  these  are  necessarily  included;  but 
because  the  term  seems  best  to  embrace  both  such  manifestations 
of  religion,  and  also  that  inward  energy  which  in  contemplation 
yearns  after  the  supreme  good.^ 

Such  is  the  importance  and  value  of  religion  in  itself. 
By  means  of  it  we  come  into  our  greatest  inheritances: 
the  irrepressible  fervour  of  ethical  desire,  the  demand 
for  satisfaction  in  regions  transcending  material  con- 
ditions, the  sense  of  right  to  participate  in  the  Divine 
purpose  as  well  as  in  the  Divine  life.  In  the  light  of 
results  obtained  by  this  analysis  of  the  message  of  the 
religious  instinct  to  our  personal  consciousness,  the 
various  modes  in  which  the  soul  bears  witness  to  God 
take  on  absorbing  interest.  Not  the  least  interesting 
thoughts  in  this  connection  are  furnished  by  atheism 
and  the  various  forms  of  denial  of  the  Divine.  Atheism 
is  an  occasional  attitude  assumed  by  human  minds 
toward  the  proposition  of  an  Infinite.     The  atheist 

I  Cf.  Picton,  op.  cit.j  p.  217. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  109 

has  to  deal  with  the  same  range  of  phenomena  appear- 
ing in  the  human  consciousness;  these  messages  of 
the  reHgious  instinct  speak  to  him  as  they  speak  to  the 
behever.  He  knows  the  irrepressible  nature  of  the 
ethical  sense,  for  many,  professing  atheism,  have  lived 
the  life  of  morality.  He  knows  the  impulse  of  the  soul 
to  spread  its  wings  and  soar  above  material  conditions. 
His  problem  is  to  account  for  these  things  while  elimi- 
nating the  Infinite.  This  he  must  do  by  forcibly  cur- 
tailing the  range  of  his  own  being;  by  cutting  the  wings 
of  his  soul.  ^'He  must  learn  to  reduce,"  as  Hutton 
says  in  his  essay  on  ^^The  Moral  Significance  of  Athe- 
ism," "the  influence  of  the  higher  intellectual  and 
moral  faculties,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  senses, 
social  impulses,  and  those  energies  which  tell  most 
directly  upon  the  world."'  And  this  he  must  do  "by 
eradicating  from  the  imagination  that  haunting  image 
of  the  Divine  character  which  most  stimulates  these 
faculties  into  action."  The  soul  bears  no  more  tragic 
witness  to  God  than  in  its  ruthless  dealings  with  itself 
in  the  effort  to  extirpate  consciousness  of  the  Divine. 
As  the  corpse  transfixed  in  the  rigour  of  death  bears 
witness,  by  unmoving  eyeball  and  unrelaxing  hand, 
to  life  expelled  in  the  last  crisis  of  mortality;  so  the 
atheist,  by  the  enforced  suppression  of  higher  instincts 
and  the  violent  excision  of  sacred  tendencies,  bears 
to  God  the  terrible  witness  of  negation. 

The  phenomena  of  doubt,  in  all  stages  of  question- 
ing, incertitude,  anguish,  or  agnosticism,  are  part, 
scarcely  a  less  tragic  part,  of  the  soul's  witness  to  God. 

'  Cf.  Theological  Essays  (ed.  Macmillan,  London,  1888),  p.  9. 


no  BARROWS  LECTURES 

Too  often  a  narrow  identification  of  religion  with  as- 
sured belief  has  led  to  misinterpretation  of  the  meaning 
of  doubt,  and  to  condemnation  of  those  who  experience 
it.  Man  himself,  by  the  audacious  definiteness  of 
his  assertions  concerning  God,  has  created  doubt  in 
the  soul  of  his  brother  man.  The  attempt  to  establish 
by  authority,  for  the  many,  that  which  can  only  be 
discerned  by  the  solitary  soul  in  its  inner  consciousness 
and  according  to  its  own  modes  of  apprehension,  has 
introduced  confusion  for  some  and  promoted  discourage- 
ment and  indifferentism  for  others.  There  is  also  an 
interpretation  of  doubt  nobler  than  this.  In  a  striking 
narrative  of  the  Bible,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  afterward  known 
as  Paul,  is  proceeding  upon  an  errand  of  extreme  hos- 
tility to  Christ  and  those  in  sympathy  with  Him.  Breath- 
ing out  threatenings  and  slaughter  from  a  soul  animated 
by  hatred  and  contempt  toward  Christ,  suddenly  he 
is  overwhelmed  at  noon-day  by  a  light  brighter  than 
the  sun,  beneath  which  he  falls  to  the  earth.  He  hears 
a  voice  that  he  recognises  as  the  voice  of  Christ  calling 
him  to  account  for  his  action  and  demanding  withdrawal 
of  opposition  and  obedience  of  service.  He  rises  to 
obey,  but  all  is  dark.  He  knows  not  whither  to  turn. 
He  stretches  out  his  hands  for  guidance.  His  own 
statement  is  this:  "I  could  not  see  for  the  glory  of  that 
light."'  The  words  may  be  taken  as  a  figure  of  the 
noble  form  of  doubt.  There  are  moments  in  which 
those  who  most  resolutely  have  opposed  the  Christ  of 
God  suddenly  are  overwhelmed  by  an  apprehension 
of  His  glory.     They  fall  before  Him,  neither  affirming 

'Acts  22:11. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  iii 

nor  denying.  Doubt  in  its  tremendous  form  lays  hold 
of  them,  not  because  there  is  so  little  of  God  but  be- 
cause there  is  so  much  of  God  forced  in  upon  their 
sight.  They  cannot  see  for  the  glory  of  that  light.  Such, 
doubt  is  the  soul's  witness  to  God,  not  against  Him. 
There  is  a  hand  stretched  out  for  such,  to  lead  them 
into  knowledge. 

If  atheism  and  doubt,  although  on  the  negative  side, 
give  evidence  of  the  soul's  witness  to  God,  the  positive 
witness  is  yet  more  impressive.  To  one  of  its  most 
ancient  forms  I  have  repeatedly  made  allusion  in  these 
lectures:  the  Aspiration  toward  Ultimate  Being,  which 
may  be  called  the  conditioning  fact  in  the  Oriental 
religious  consciousness,  the  influence  of  which  operates 
in  every  Eastern  religion.  The  significance  of  this  as  a 
Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God  extends  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  overstatement.  It  is  the  very  diadem  of  the 
spirit  set  upon  the  calm,  contemplative  brow  of  the 
East.  It  is  the  most  regal  claim  to  a  Divine  birthright 
ever  made  by  humanity.  It  is  proffered  not  in  noisy 
and  shallow  words,  but  in  the  silent  and  unalterable 
assumption  of  the  soul.  It  may  be  described  not  as 
an  article  of  faith  but  as  a  state  of  consciousness.  It 
is  not  an  attribute  of  the  East;  it  is  the  East  it  self- 
its  very  spiritual  substance !  When  I  spoke  earlier  in 
this  lecture  of  my  summons  to  the  East  on  behalf  of 
the  world  to  become  the  interpreter  of  Christ,  I  had  no 
thought  of  calling  the  East  away  from  this  great  birth- 
right to  undertake  that  interpretation,  but  of  bidding 
it,  through  and  because  of  this  birthright,  to  accept 
and  discharge  that  duty.     For  by  reason  of  that  Aspira- 


112  BARROWS  LECTURES 

tion  toward  Ultimate  Being,  that  assurance  that  the 
reality  in  you  is  one  with  the  Infinite  Reality,  that 
refusal  to  accept  the  transitory  world  as  final  and  the 
perishable  forms  of  matter  as  ultimate,  you  are  qualified 
above  all  your  human  brethren  to  assimilate  in  your 
own  consciousness  and  to  reaffirm  in  the  world  that 
mystery  which  was  hid  from  ages  and  generations,  but 
is  now  made  manifest  to  such  as  are  of  an  enlightened 
spirit,  the  mystery  of  the  Christ  of  God — that  God  was 
in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself.  The 
witness  of  the  Eastern  soul  to  God  is  so  profound, 
organic,  involuntary,  that  it  appears,  like  a  command- 
ment written  upon  the  heart,  to  designate  the  East  and 
set  it  apart  for  a  service  of  the  world  commensurate 
in  value  and  depth. 

As  man's  religious  instinct  has  found  expression  in 
channels  that,  originating  in  the  East,  have  merged  in 
Christianity,  his  soul  has  borne  witness  to  God,  in  ways 
that  have  had  the  effect  not  of  contradicting  but  of 
supplementing  that  silent  and  unalterable  aspiration 
of  the  Farther  East  toward  Ultimate  Being.  To  that 
aspiration  I  have  paid  heartfelt  tribute.  May  I  call 
attention  to  the  importance  of  discriminating  between 
contradictory  and  supplementary  expressions  of  reli- 
gious instinct?  The  history  of  religion  gives  many 
instances  of  contradictory  expressions  of  religious 
instinct.  Probably  every  religion  furnishes  such  in- 
stances within  itself  in  the  evolution  of  its  own  institu- 
tions and  practises.  Contradictory  expressions  of 
of  this  kind  certainly  are  to  be  found  in  Christianity, 
ancient  and  modern,  to  the  great  bewilderment  of  non- 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  113 


Christian  observers,  who  probably  do  not  reaHse  that 
a  closer  study  of  their  own  religions  might  disclose 
similar  contradictions.  We  have,  for  example,  in  the 
company  of  Christian  believers  those  who  advocate, 
confession  of  sin  to  priests,  appointed  to  receive  such 
confidences  and  to  pronounce  absolution.  We  have, 
on  the  other  hand,  those  who  consider  such  proceedings 
quite  invalid,  and  recommend  that  confession  of  sin 
be  made  directly  and  only  to  God.  We  have  those  who 
consider  that  religion  should  be  in  the  care  of  the  State, 
which  should  regulate  its  observances,  conserve  its 
doctrines,  and  secure  its  endowments.  We  have,  on 
the  other  hand,  those  who  affirm  that  the  State,  as  such, 
should  have  no  authority  in  the  matter  of  religion,  save 
to  secure  equal  rights  and  privileges  for  all  religious 
bodies;  and  that  choice  of  observances,  framing  of 
doctrines,  and  modes  of  temporal  maintenance  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  without  let  or  hindrance. 
We  have  those  who  declare  that  Baptism,  the  solemn 
rite  which  is  a  sign  of  entrance  within  the  Christian 
Church,  may  be  administered  duly  to  persons  of  adult 
age  alone,  and  only  by  the  act  of  immersing  the  whole 
body  in  water.  We  have,  on  the  other  hand,  those 
who  consider  that  infant  children  of  believing  parents 
are  entitled  to  recognition  within  the  fold  of  the  Church, 
and  that  the  sacred  rite  of  Baptism  may  be  administered 
duly  by  sprinkling  upon  the  head  a  few  drops  of  pure 
water.  I  take  much  interest  in  calling  attention  to 
these  contradictory  expressions  of  religious  instinct 
found  in  the  practise  of  the  Christian  religion.  Such 
contradictions  excite  the  curiosity  and  awaken  the  dis- 


114  BARROWS  LECTURES 

trust  of  thoughtful  observers  from  without.  The  true 
Christian  attitude  toward  these  difficulties  is  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  their  existence  and  a  careful  estimate  of 
their  relative  significance,  as  compared  with  the  larger 
unities  of  the  same  religion.  It  will  then  appear  that 
these  contradictory  expressions  on  certain  points  of 
faith  or  practise  have  come  to  exist  among  bodies  which 
are  in  agreement  upon  fundamental  questions.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  in  Hinduism  and  other  religions  of  India, 
corresponding  instances  of  contradiction  appear,  and 
would  be  acknowledged  with  equal  frankness. 

Contradictory  expressions  of  religious  instinct  are 
found  to  exist  on  a  large  scale  between  the  several  great 
religions  of  the  world,  and  occasionally  to  involve  ques- 
tions of  high  magnitude.  The  suffering  heart  of  hu- 
manity has  been  torn  by  them.  I  need  not  give  illus- 
trations of  this  point.  The  field  of  the  world  has  been 
ploughed  as  with  ploughshares  of  fire  by  religious  pas- 
sions voicing  in  opposite  ways  the  same  grand  endeavour 
of  man  to  give  practical  expression  to  his  conscious 
relation  to  the  Infinite.  As  I  study  the  history  of  reli- 
gion on  this  troubled  earth  of  ours,  I  grow  toward  the 
conviction  that  the  contradictory  expressions  of  religious 
instinct  are  not  the  ultimate  and  vital  things  that  should 
attract  our  attention.  Many  do  not  involve  questions 
of  the  first  magnitude ;  and  some,  in  the  Christian  reli- 
gion certainly,  have  received  more  attention  than  they 
merited  and  have  been  the  cause  of  more  sadness  and 
heart-burning  than  the  issues  they  involved  were  worthy 
to  produce.  Where  the  contradiction  between  religions 
stands  on  ground  of  primary  importance,  the  deadlock 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  115 

offers  no  avenue  of  escape  for  the  religious  conscious- 
ness of  man  into  broader  and  more  blessed  union  with 
his  brethren  in  the  one  great  fellowship  of  the  Truth. 
The  old  battles  rage  on  and  on.  The  old  fields  of  con- 
flict are  ploughed  backward  and  forward  with  plough- 
shares of  fire.  Where  is  the  gain  to  the  world?  I 
repeat :  As  we  study  the  religious  problem  of  the  world, 
the  contradictory  expressions  of  religious  instinct  are 
not  the  ultimate  and  vital  things  that  should  attract 
our  attention.  The  things  that  we  should  study  are 
the  supplementary  expressions  of  religious  instinct, 
for  in  them  lies  promise  for  the  world  and  victory  for 
Truth.  I  said,  a  moment  since,  and  I  draw  your 
attention  now  to  the  expression,  for  my  heart  is  bound 
up  in  its  meaning:  As  man's  religious  instinct  has  found 
expression  in  channels  that,  originating  in  the  East, 
have  merged  in  Christianity,  his  soul  has  borne  witness 
to  God  in  ways  that  have  had  the  effect,  not  of  contra- 
dicting, but  of  supplementing  the  aspiration  of  the 
Farther  East  toward  Ultimate  Being.  That  aspiration, 
whether  or  not  it  be  the  most  ancient  form  in  which 
the  soul  has  borne  witness  to  God,  is  the  fundamental 
form  and  the  form  that  has  given  expression  to  the  soul- 
longing  of  the  greatest  number  of  human  lives.  In 
principle  it  says:  Man,  so  far  as  he  is  real,  is  identical 
with  God.  Be  it  then  the  goal  of  life  to  break  through 
bonds  of  ignorance  and  be  emancipated  in  knowledge 
of  the  one  reality.  Let  us  count  all  things  but  loss; 
yes,  all  things  but  dreams,  for  the  excellency  of  that 
knowledge.  In  principle  that  is  pantheism.  It  in- 
volves primarily  subjugation  of  the  visible  for  the  sake 


Il6  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  the  invisible,  contempt  of  the  seen  for  the  sake  of  the 
unseen.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  you  that  many  thinkers 
of  the  West,  appalled  by  ominous  signs  in  Western 
civilisation,  that  betoken  the  worship  of  applied  force, 
money  force,  brain  force,  force  of  physical  elements  in 
combination,  have  felt  that  in  pantheism  lies  the  only 
hope  of  postponing  the  world's  practical  alienation 
from  the  life  of  God.  It  has  seemed  to  them  that  reli- 
gion is  losing  its  power,  except  in  form ;  that  pantheism 
alone  can  bring  back  inner  consciousness  of  unseen 
interests.  So  thought  Spinoza,  and  said  it  with  a  grace 
never  excelled  in  either  hemisphere.  So  thought  von 
Hartmann,  and  said  it  thirty  years  ago,  in  unequivocal 
words: 

It  becomes  a  question  of  vital  importance  to  Religiousness  and 
to  the  ideals  of  humanity,  how  Pantheism  is  to  be  brought  into 
the  consciousness  of  the  nations  who  represent  modern  civiHsation; 
for,  if  Pantheism  does  not  penetrate  there  or  arrives  late,  the 
inevitable  consequence  will  be  that  irreligious  materialistic  Natural- 
ism must  occupy  the  empty  place.  ^ 

I  cannot  agree  with  such  a  solution  of  this  pressing 
world-problem,  the  growing  indifference  to  the  unseen 
in  the  interest  of  the  seen ;  the  problem  which  is  at  the 
bottom  of  every  political  and  social  condition  in  the 
world  to-day.  I  cannot  feel  that  the  importation  of 
Eastern  pantheism  in  its  present  state  would  save  the 
day,  in  seats  of  empire  that  control  the  world.  Experi- 
ments made  in  this  direction  confirm  my  opinion. 
Pantheism,   applied   as   a   correction   of   materialistic 

^  C/.  The  Religion  of  the  Future      don,  W.  Stewart  and  Co.,  1886),  p. 
(transl.  by  Ernest  Dare;  ed.  Lon-       no. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  117 

world-power,  in  men  or  nations,  acts,  up  to  a  certain 
point,  in  the  desired  direction.  At  that  point  it  becomes 
inoperative,  spiritless,  apathetic,  not  because  its  con- 
ception of  finite  being  as  identical  with  Universal  Being 
is  not  Truth,  for  it  is  Truth^s  foundation  stone,  but 
because  that  conception  requires  to  be  supplemented 
by  further  conceptions  successively  disclosed  to  the 
religious  sense  of  man,  particularly  along  the  lines  of 
his  ethical  consciousness.  These  disclosures  of  which 
I  speak  have  occurred  in  the  course  of  that  stream  of 
thought  and  empirical  knowledge  which,  gathering 
volume  from  many  tributaries,  Aryan,  Semitic,  Greek, 
like  a  mountain  torrent  taking  up  into  its  bounding 
current  streams  from  a  thousand  hills,  becomes  at  length 
the  shining  river  of  Christianity.  I  rejoice  to  remind 
you  that  I  am  now  to  speak  of  matters  which  do  not 
contradict,  but  richly  supplement,  the  noblest  and  most 
ancient  philosophical  conceptions  of  the  East.  Pro- 
fessor Deussen,  in  his  Philosophy  of  the  TJpanishads, 
uses  words  that,  by  repetition,  I  gladly  make  my  own. 
After  pointing  out  that  the  Veda  and  the  Bible  agree 
in  recognising  man's  need  of  release  from  the  depraved 
self  of  experience  and  the  complete  transformation  of 
the  natural  man  as  a  whole,  he  says: 

Why  then  do  we  need  a  release  from  this  existence  ?  Because 
it  is  the  realm  of  sin,  is  the  reply  of  the  Bible.  The  Veda  answers, 
Because  it  is  the  realm  of  ignorance.  The  former  sees  depravity 
in  the  volitional,  the  latter  in  the  intellectual  side  of  human  nature. 
The  Bible  demands  a  change  of  the  will,  the  Veda  a  change  of  the 
understanding.  On  which  side  does  the  truth  lie  ?  If  man  were 
pure  will  or  pure  intelligence,  we  should  have  to  decide  for  one 
or  the  other  alternative.     But  since  he  is  a  being  who  both  wills 


ii8  BARROWS  LECTURES 

and  knows,  the  great  change  upon  which  the  Bible  and  the  Veda 
alike  make  salvation  depend  must  be  realised  in  both  departments 
of  his  life.  Such  a  change  is,  in  the  first  place,  according  to  the 
Biblical  view,  the  softening  of  a  heart  hardened  by  natural  self- 
love,  and  the  inclining  of  it  to  deeds  of  righteousness,  affection  and 
self-denial.  It  is,  however,  in  the  second  place  and  side  by  side 
with  this,  the  breaking  forth  upon  us  of  the  Hght  of  the  great 
intellectual  truth  which  the  Upanishads  taught  before  Kant,  that 
there  is  in  truth  one  Being  alone,  eternal,  exalted  above  space  and 
time,  multiplicity  and  change,  self-revealing  in  all  the  forms  of 
nature,  and  by  me  who  myself  also  am  one  and  undivided,  dis- 
covered and  realised  within  as  my  very  Self.^ 

Then  Deussen  concludes  with  words  that  express  far 
more  clearly  and  strongly  than  mine  what  this  entire 
course  of  lectures  is  designed  to  express: 

The  New  Testament  and  the  Upanishads,  these  two  noblest 
products  of  the  religious  consciousness  of  mankind,  are  found 
when  we  sound  their  deeper  meaning  to  be  nowhere  in  irreconcil- 
able contradiction,  but  in  a  manner  the  most  attractive  serve  to 
elucidate  and  complete  one  another. 

I  may,  then,  without  fear  of  being  thought  to  take 
up  a  hostile  attitude  to  the  fundamental  philosophy 
of  the  East,  proceed  to  show  how  Christianity  in  its 
highest  realm  of  thinking  goes  on  to  supplement  that 
philosophy.  The  message  of  pantheism  is  distinctively 
a  message  to  the  intellectual  consciousness  of  man, 
telling  him  what  he  is  in  his  Being,  and  how  he  stands 
related  to  the  Universal  Ground  of  Being,  the  Absolute. 
The  message  of  Christianity  is  distinctively  a  message 
to  the  moral  consciousness  of  man,  telling  him  what 
he  must  do,  what  he  must  become  in  character,  because 

I  op.  ciL,  pp.  48,  49. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  119 


of  his  relation  to  Absolute  Being,  which  is  pointed  out 
by  pantheism.  If  I  may  adopt  for  momentary  illus- 
tration the  well-known  titles  of  Kant's  two  critiques, 
the  Critique  of  Pure  Reason  and  the  Critique  of  Practical 
Reason,  I  should  say  pantheism  deals  with  the  facts 
and  sanctions  of  man's  Pure  Reason ;  Christianity  deals 
with  the  facts  and  sanctions  of  man's  Practical  Reason. 
Approaching  man's  nature  with  a  view  to  interpreting 
it  to  him,  that  he  may  enter  into  salvation  from  a  de- 
praved erapirical  self,  Christianity  reminds  man  that 
his  moral  consciousness  is  just  as  much  an  actual  part 
of  himself  as  his  intellectual  consciousness,  and  that  if 
he  acknowledges  the  last  he  must  also  acknowledge  the 
first.  The  two  are  co-ordinated  in  himself.  I  do  not 
suppose  that  any  of  my  learned  hearers  would  even 
wish  to  deny  the  reality  of  our  moral  consciousness.  To 
do  so  would  make  it  necessary  to  deny  the  reality  of 
intellectual  consciousness,  which  stands  on  precisely 
the  same  ground  of  validity;  and  to  deny  intellectual 
consciousness  would  be  to  deny  the  Absolute,  for  the 
Absolute  in  us  is  the  essence  of  intellectual  conscious- 
ness. It  is  the  self-existent  Life  of  the  All  in  us  that 
renders  us  capable  of  philosophical  thought  which  is 
pantheism.     To  deny  pantheism  is  to  deny  the  All. 

Christianity,  taking  this  fact  of  moral  consciousness, 
first  draws  our  attention  to  its  nature,  then  tells  us  its 
meaning.  The  nature  of  moral  consciousness  is  a  sub- 
ject that  leads  us  into  a  field  of  thought  where  we  are 
at  a  loss  to  determine  whether  the  objects  that  meet 
our  gaze  are  more  wonderful,  more  beautiful,  or  more 
terrible.     We  find  in  our  consciousness  a  capacity  of 


I20  BARROWS  LECTURES 

moral  distinction,  the  power  to  discern  good  and  evil, 
intuitive,  existing  prior  to  all  instruction.  It  is  a  capa- 
city that  may  indeed  be  greatly  modified  by  education, 
that  may  be  developed  from  a  rudimentary  stage  to  a 
high  and  delicate  state  of  ethical  discernment;  but  the 
power  is  in  us  prior  to  its  development,  as  an  original 
underived  fact  of  consciousness.  It  emerges  into  the 
region  of  organised  consciousness,  where  we  analyse 
and  think  things  through  to  their  conclusions.  It  is, 
I  believe,  primarily  existent  in  the  sub-conscious  life, 
at  a  depth  beneath  analysis,  as  a  subjective  state  of 
ethical  discernment.  We  feel  the  good  when  we  cannot 
account  for  its  presence;  we  feel  the  evil,  as  a  chill 
breath  exhaled  upon  us  from  without.  Joined  with 
this  power  to  discriminate  good  from  evil,  there  exists 
also,  as  an  underived  fact  in  our  consciousness,  the 
intuitive  sense  of  the  absolute  value  of  good.  We  know 
what  we  mean  when  we  say  *^a  good  man."  We  know 
that  we  are  making  a  declaration  of  relative  value; 
and  that  if  we  could  say  ^^a  perfectly  good  man"  we 
should  be  making  a  declaration  of  absolute  value,  the 
contrast  and  opposite  of  ''a  perfectly  bad  man."  This 
sense  of  the  value  of  good  is  in  us  by  nature.  More 
than  this:  We  are  conscious  of  the  authority  of  good 
for  ourselves.  By  an  underived  power  of  consciousness 
we  feel  that  the  good  embodies  an  unconditional  demand 
of  reason;  the  good  has  a  right  to  command  us;  the 
good,  by  an  authority  within  itself,  compels  us  to  say, 
^^I  ought. ^^  In  the  moment  when  w^e  say  ^'I  oughV^ 
we  enter  the  region  of  moral  responsibility  and  find 
ourselves  to  possess  a  variety  of  powers  that  affect  our 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  I2l 

lives  and  determine  our  conduct.  We  find  that  we  have 
power  to  discern  between  higher  and  lower  affections, 
between  higher  and  lower  motives,  and  that  while  we 
may,  in  experience,  obey  the  lower  affection  or  yield 
to  the  lower  motive,  we  acknowledge  in  reason  the 
supremacy  of  the  higher,  and  are  conscious  that  we 
have  empirically  rejected  the  claim  of  good.  The  effect 
upon  ourselves  of  this  rejection  of  the  higher  in 
favour  of  the  lower  is  to  bring  discord  into  consciousness, 
a  sense  of  not  having  done  the  thing  that  had  the  right 
to  command  us,  a  sense  of  falsity  to  our  ideal.  Yet  even 
this  discord  in  consciousness  may  not  prevent  us  from 
repeating  the  act  of  disloyalty  to  good,  because  of  the 
further  fact  of  consciousness  that  we  have  a  power  of 
free  choice  between  conflicting  alternatives  of  conduct, 
a  power  to  choose  darkness  rather  than  light,  to  permit 
the  lower  affection  to  usurp  the  place  of  the  higher,  the 
unethical  passion  to  trample  upon  the  ethical  ideal. 
Such  is  the  nature  of  moral  consciousness;  we  know 
not  whether  to  call  it  more  wonderful,  more  beautiful, 
or  more  terrible.  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  fact  ? 
To  what  source  must  we  attribute  its  existence  ?  It  is 
not  the  result  of  any  school  of  culture,  or  of  any  special 
creed.  It  is  not  the  idiosyncrasy  of  any  nation.  It 
is  universal:  a  birthright  of  humanity.  In  untutored 
races  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  the  power  of  the 
moral  imperative,  the  concurrence  or  antagonism  of  the 
will,  the  discernment  of  an  ideal  are  present,  but  in 
rudimentary  forms.  Under  the  influence  of  true  pro- 
gressive culture  the  scale  and  plane  of  ethical  culture 
are  indefinitely  raised ;  artificial  and  spurious  elements 


122  BARROWS  LECTURES 

are  cast  out;  ideals  grow  in  the  lustre  of  purity;  the  will 
becomes  amenable  to  reason  and  its  choices  are  invested 
with  ever  higher  rationality.  Evidently  there  can  be 
but  one  source  of  ethical  consciousness;  and  that 
identical  with  the  source  of  intellecual  consciousness. 
In  the  Common  Ground  and  Source  of  all  phenomena, 
in  that  Universal  Intelligence  to  which  we  trace  the 
springs  of  thought  and  the  secret  of  knowledge,  we  shall 
also  find  the  fountains  of  ethical  consciousness  and  the 
ultimate  heart  of  God.  The  involuntary  perception 
of  good  and  evil  by  man,  his  sense  of  the  moral  imper- 
ative, his  conviction  of  the  value  of  good  are  the  witness 
of  the  soul  to  the  moral  character  of  God  in  Whom  it 
lives. 

Advancing  thus  by  a  process  of  thought  not  contra- 
dictory to  the  results  of  higher  Eastern  philosophy,  the 
Christian  religion* adds  to  those  results  supplementary 
truths  of  the  richest  import  to  the  individual  and  the 
world.  The  relation  of  pantheism  and  Christianity 
as  supplementary  to  one  another  in  the  world's  advance 
to  an  adequate  knowledge  of  God  is  suggested  by  the 
two  members  of  an  early  Christian  Scripture:  "He 
that  Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is  and  that 
He  is  a  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Him.'" 
It  may  be  said  that  the  mission  of  pantheism  is  to  assert 
the  being  of  God — to  make  men  believe  that  He  is :  the 
Life  of  all  that  lives,  the  unifying  Consciousness  in  all 
souls;  and  that  the  mission  of  Christianity  is  to  assert 
the  moral  character  of  God,  to  make  men  feel  that  He 
is  a  rewarder  of   them  that  diligently  seek  Him— to 

^Heb.  ii:6. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  123 

teach  men  the  relation  of  their  own  moral  consciousness 
to  the  moral  consciousness  of  God,  the  relation  of  their 
wills  to  the  will  of  God,  the  nature  and  extent  of  their 
responsibility  in  the  presence  of  God.  In  other  words, 
pantheism  makes  clear  that  God  is — Christianity  gives 
moral  effect  to  that  knowledge  by  making  equally  clear 
what  God  is.  It  does  so,  as  the  most  mature  and  pro- 
found Christian  thinking  abundantly  shows,  not  by 
setting  up  an  imaginary  being  whom  it  calls  God  exte- 
rior to  man,  and  arbitrarily  decking  that  being  with 
such  attributes  as  fancy  or  ecclesiastical  authority  may 
choose.  That  has  been  done,  but  without  satisfaction 
to  reason;  inasmuch  as  in  such  a  being,  arbitrarily 
defined  by  man,  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  Ulti- 
mate Being.  Such  a  God  is  simply  a  magnified  man, 
who  must  himself  be  accounted  for  by  causes  lying  back 
of  himself.  The  higher  Christian  thinking  advances 
toward  an  apprehension  of- God's  moral  consciousness 
by  the  venerable  path  hallowed  by  sages  of  the  East, 
the  path  of  introspection.  It  finds  the  Moral  Character 
of  God  through  the  deeps  of  consciousness  in  man.  As 
the  ocean  is  beneath  all  ships,  the  air  beneath  all  birds, 
so  is  the  Infinite  Ground  of  Being  beneath  all  life,  the 
Source  of  all  life,  the  Great  World-Master,  projecting 
our  finite  spirits  out  of  Himself.  We  are  but  what  He 
is.  A  Christian  Scripture  says:  ^^As  He  is,  so  are  we 
in  this  world."'  So  man  most  deeply  approaches  the 
knowledge  of  God  through  the  witnessings  of  his  own 
consciousness.  The  Pure  Reason  in  man,  the  power 
of  philosophical  thought,  is,  in  us,  the  immanence  of  the 

I  I  John  4:17. 


124  BARROWS  LECTURES 


Infinite  Life  as  intellectual  force,  the  partial  movement 
in  the  finite  of  that  Infinite  Consciousness  to  which 
all  hearts  are  open,  all  desires  known,  and  from  which 
no  secrets  are  hid.  The  Practical  Reason  in  man,  the 
power  of  moral  judgment,  the  sense  of  the  absoluteness 
and  authority  of  good,  the  power  to  discern  ideals  and 
classify  motives,  is,  likewise,  in  us,  the  immanence  of 
the  Infinite  Life  as  moral  force,  the  partial  movement 
in  the  finite  of  that  Infinite  Moral  Consciousness  which 
is  the  perfection  of  good,  the  essence  of  right,  the  seat 
and  habitation  of  all  the  beauties  of  holiness.  The 
testimonies  are  absolutely  co-ordinate:  the  testimony 
of  Pure  Reason  pointing  to  God's  Being — that  He  is; 
the  testimony  of  Practical  Reason,  pointing  to  God's 
Character— ^/^a/  He  is. 

I  shall  be  told  that  what  I  am  now  saying  is  inadmis- 
sible because  the  expression  "What  God  is"  is,  by  impli- 
cation, an  assignment  of  qualities  to  the  Infinite,  and 
the  Infinite  cannot  be  qualified.  I  should  like  to  speak 
to  that  point  for  a  moment.  There  is  no  more  interest- 
ing example  of  opposite  intellectual  tendencies  than 
that  which  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  Western  and 
Eastern  thought  respectively  in  the  matter  of  assigning 
qualities  to  the  Infinite.  The  Western  mind,  actuated 
by  reverence,  feels  under  obligation  to  describe  God 
both  in  nature  and  character,  on  the  ground  that  not  to 
worship  the  qualities  of  God,  by  specifying  them,  is 
to  show  lack  of  appreciation.  Urged  by  this  good 
motive,  the  West  constantly  falls,  or  is  on  the  verge 
of  falling,  into  excess  of  afiirmation  touching  the  nature 
of  the  Infinite  and  into  the  fallacy  of  representing  the 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  125 

Infinite  as  perfectly  knowable  by  man.  The  Eastern 
mind,  actuated  by  the  same  motive  of  reverence,  feels 
under  obligation  to  deny  the  possibility  of  making  any 
affirmation  touching  the  Infinite.  Urged  by  this  motive 
the  East  constantly  falls  into  the  excess  of  making  the 
most  perilous  of  all  affirmations,  namely,  the  affirma- 
tion of  positive  negation  that  the  Infinite  is  altogether 
unknowable.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  reasons  lead- 
ing respectively  to  these  opposite  views  of  the  Infinite. 
The  West,  with  its  characteristic  sense  of  personality, 
seeks  to  make  God  personal  in  the  sense  in  which  man 
is  personal,  in  order  to  show  that  God  and  man  are  one 
in  the  bond  of  the  Divine  Love.  The  East,  with  its 
characteristic  sense  of  Ultimate  Being,  seeks  to  exclude 
all  real  personality  from  God  as  well  as  from  man,  in 
order  to  show  that  man  and  God  are  one  according 
to  the  philosophical  conception  of  Ultimate  Being. 
So  long  as  pantheism  and  Christianity  are  placed  in 
opposition,  as  mutually  exclusive  types  of  thought,  it 
cannot  but  appear  that  in  these  two  views  of  God  we  are 
confronted  by  an  irreconcilable  contradiction.  But 
let  us  permit  ourselves  to  recognise  in  pantheism  a 
fundamental  principle  to  which  Christianity,  coming 
in  the  fulness  of  time,  contributes  supplementary, 
enriching  elements,  essential  to  the  complete  develop- 
ment of  religion.  Then  the  two  views  of  God  which, 
taken  separately,  develope  contradictory  results,  are 
found,  when  brought  into  relation,  to  produce  one  har- 
monious result,  of  the  greatest  richness  and  power. 
The  excesses  on  either  side  drop  away,  and  the  two 
norms  of  thought  perfectly  supplement  each  other. 


126  BARROWS  LECTURES 

The  pantheistic  norm  establishes  and  conserves  the 
unsearchableness  of  the  Divine  Essence,  v^hich  is  a 
shoreless,  soundless  ocean  of  Being.  The  Christian 
norm,  breaking  from  crude  deistic  notions  of  an  external 
God,  finds  in  the  immanence  of  the  Absolute  v^ithin 
man  himself,  as  the  Ground  of  consciousness,  moral 
distinctions  and  qualities  in  an  ascending  scale  of  ideal- 
istic suggestion.  Of  these  no  explanation  can  be  given 
except  that  they  are  manifestations  in  the  sphere  of  the 
finite  of  an  Infinite  Moral  Consciousness,  which  is 
externally  present  in  that  ocean  of  Ultimate  Being,  in 
a  sense  transcending  human  power  to  know  or  to  ima- 
gine. We  may  speak  of  "  God's  WUl,"  ''  God's  Mind," 
^'  God's  Thought,"  but  those  terms  are  mere  terms  of 
necessity,  which,  in  our  finitude,  we  use  to  indicate  that 
of  which  we  can  form  no  other  than  a  figurative  con- 
ception. We  cannot  know,  we  cannot  imagine  what 
will,  mind,  thought  are  in  the  shoreless,  soundless  ocean 
of  Ultimate  Being.  We  cannot  know,  we  cannot  ima- 
gine what  character  and  ethical  purpose  are  in  the  In- 
finite Moral  Consciousness.  So  speaks  the  Bible:  ^^For 
My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your 
ways  My  ways,  saith  the  Lord.  For  as  the  heavens 
are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  My  ways  higher  than 
your  ways,  and  My  thoughts  than  your  thoughts."' 
Man  knows  only,  by  the  moral  imperative  in  his  own 
soul,  and  by  the  ethical  ideals  which  rise  higher  as  he  him- 
self ascends  in  true  culture,  that  these  witnessings  within 
himself  of  the  Universal  Mind  are  projected  out  of  the 
inconceivable  depths  of  Infinite  Moral  Consciousness. 

ilsa.  55:  8,  9. 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  127 

As  we  compare  and  measure  these  ethical  ideals, 
from  the  view-point  of  our  highest  culture,  eliminating 
those  that  are  temporary,  accidental,  local,  or,  in  any 
sense  the  fruit  of  ignorance,  retaining  those  that  are 
universal  and  enduring,  we  find  one  that  rises  above 
all  others,  gathering  into  itself  the  permanent  elements 
of  others  but  ascending  higher.  We  call  it  love.  I 
do  not  mean  sentimental,  erotic  affection,  which  is  a 
thing  so  different  and  so  readily  amalgamated  with 
evil  that  one  would  gladly  give  it  another  and  less 
exalted  name  in  English,  even  as  it  has  another  name 
in  Greek.  Love,  as  the  highest  ideal  of  moral  conscious- 
ness, is  unmingled  with,  uncontaminated  by,  erotic 
affection. '  It  lives  in  an  atmosphere  free  from  egoistic 
passion.  Its  beauty  is  the  beauty  of  holiness;  its  pas- 
sion is  the  passion  of  self-renunciation ;  its  sphere  is  not 
selective  and  preferential  individualism,  setting  up  one 
above  all  others;  its  sphere  is  the  universal  life  of  man. 
When,  from  the  plane  of  highest  culture,  we  look  within 
ourselves,  if  we  find  this  love  we  know  it  as  our  best. 
We  bow  to  it  as  that  having  the  supreme  right  to  com- 
mand us.  Obedience  to  this  love  means  abolition  of 
selfishness,  dethroning  of  pride,  discarding  of  unethical 
ambitions.  Obedience  to  this  love  means  patience 
toward  the  weak,  compassion  toward  the  erring,  sym- 
pathy for  the  ignorant,  tenderness  for  the  sorrowing. 
Obedience  to  this  love  means  participation  in  the  uni- 
versal life,  reverence  for  all  men,  faith  in  humanity. 

I  In  making  these  observations  I  of  Oxford  in  his  Bampton  Lectures 

am   not   unmindful   of   a   contrary  on  the  Christian  Platonists  of  Alex- 

opinion   regarding   the   two    Greek  andria.     C}.  Introduction,  pp.  9,  10 

words  expressed  by  Professor  Bigg  (ed.  Oxford,  1886). 


128  BARROWS  LECTURES 

What  then  is  the  message  of  this  highest  fact  in  our 
moral  consciousness,  this  ideal  that  witnesses  within, 
above  all  other  ideals  as  the  best  we  know  ?  The  Chris- 
tian religion  teaches  us  to  interpret  this  fact.  As  this 
love  is  the  most  commanding  fact  among  all  the  facts 
of  our  moral  consciousness,  which,  in  their  totality, 
constitute  the  immanence  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Absolute 
in  ourselves;  as  this  love  suggests  and  inspires  the 
highest  ethical  ideals  that  we  have  power  to  entertain, 
and  perpetually  convinces  us  that  it  has  the  greatest 
absolute  value  among  all  things  that  we  have  power  to 
know,  we  therefore  conclude  that  it  is  a  suggestion  of 
the  most  central  fact  in  the  Moral  Consciousness  of 
Ultimate  Being.  I  say  a  suggestion.  It  is  that  only. 
We,  of  ourselves,  cannot  conceive  what  love  is  in  the 
Moral  Consciousness  of  God,  even  as  we,  of  ourselves, 
cannot  conceive  what  thought  is  in  the  Intellectual 
Consciousness  of  God.  Yet,  guided  by  the  witness 
of  the  soul  in  us,  that  is,  guided  by  that  within  us  which 
is  projected  out  of  the  Infinite  Moral  Consciousness, 
we  say,  knowing  well  what  we  mean,  up  to  the  limit  of 
our  intelligence,  "God  is  Love." 

I  have  just  said  that  we,  of  ourselves,  have  no  power 
to  conceive  what  love  is  in  the  Moral  Consciousness 
of  God.  That  must  be  true.  I  will  agree  with  any 
pantheist  as  to  the  inconceivability  of  the  Divine  Con- 
sciousness by  the  human  mind.  "  God  only  knows  the 
love  of  God,"  said  a  great  English  hymn- writer.  But 
that  fact  does  not  operate  to  defeat  a  purpose  of  the 
Infinite  to  enter  the  sphere  of  our  moral  consciousness 
in  order  to  disclose  His  nature  and  His  purpose  out- 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  129 

wardly,  even  as  the  Infinite  is  ever  in  the  sphere  of  our 
consciousness,  disclosing  Himself  inwardly  in  our  power 
of  reason  and  conscience.  We  may  not  go  to  Him, 
but  He  can  come  to  us,  and  add  to  the  inward  aspira- 
tions and  hopes  of  our  moral  consciousness  an  outward 
confirmation  of  those  aspirations  and  hopes,  given  in 
the  way  that  we  can  understand  most  easily,  that  is  to 
say,  in  an  Incarnate  Life. 

The  line  of  thought  which  we  have  pursued  this 
evening  started  in  the  fundamental  ground  of  pantheism. 
It  has  led  us  into  a  region  of  thought  not  contradictory 
but  supplementary  to  that  fundamental  ground.  We 
have  advanced  from  the  Being  of  the  Infinite  to  the 
Character  of  the  Infinite,  making  our  way  thereto  along 
the  sacred  path  of  introspection,  looking  into  the  depths 
of  our  own  moral  consciousness,  reading  in  those  depths 
suggestions  of  the  Nature  and  Essence  of  God.  We 
are  brought  now  to  a  question  of  fact.  Has  God  given 
any  outward  confirmation  of  those  beliefs  and  hopes 
concerning  Himself  which  man,  through  the  ethical 
witnessings  of  his  own  soul,  ventures  to  entertain  ?  As 
we  cannot  know  what  God's  Moral  Essence  is,  save 
as  we  infer  it  through  the  moral  imperative  in  ourselves, 
because  of  the  inconceivability  of  the  Absolute,  has 
there  at  any  time  issued  from  that  inconceivable  Abso- 
lute, as  a  Son  coming  forth  from  the  bosom  of  a  Father, 
as  a  Word  uttered  in  the  language  of  humanity,  as  an 
Interpreter  of  the  secrets  of  ^the  Divine  Intelligence, 
an  outward  revelation  of  that  which  is  affirmed  by  our 
inward  sense?  The  Christian  religion  is  the  answer 
to  this  question:    the  double  answer  of  history  and 


I30  BARROWS  LECTURES 

experience.  Its  answer  of  history  is  the  fact,  the  pur- 
pose, and  the  work  of  Christ  in  the  past.  Its  answer 
of  experience  is  the  place  and  the  power  of  Christ  in 
the  moral  consciousness  of  the  present.  The  consid- 
eration of  this  double  answer  will  occupy  my  next  lec- 
ture on  the  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian 
Religion.  In  beginning  the  present  lecture  I  expressed 
the  conviction  that  it  is  inadequate  to  consider  the 
Christian  religion  in  any  light  that  excludes  the  Divinity 
of  Christ.  This  conviction  I  repeat  in  closing,  as  I  turn 
once  more  to  you,  my  Eastern  brethren,  and  reflect 
upon  your  power  to  interpret  that  mystical  Divinity 
of  the  Living  Word,  as  it  may  be  given  you  to  assimilate 
its  meaning  in  your  own  consciousness.  How  strong, 
how  clear,  how  sufficing,  seem  the  probability  and 
reasonableness  of  Christ's  essential  Divinity  when  we 
think  of  the  requirements  of  our  own  moral  conscious- 
ness and  when  we  think  of  holy  love  as  the  central 
Essence  of  the  Infinite.  We  have  in  ourselves,  as  the 
outcome  and  projection  of  the  immanent  Spirit  of  God, 
this  power  of  ethical  discernment.  We  know  good  and 
evil.  We  know  the  authority  of  good.  We  hear  the 
unconditional  demand  of  the  moral  imperative.  We 
recognise  the  supremacy  of  higher  affections  over  lower 
affections.  We  can  grasp  high  ideals.  Ah !  who  shall 
show  us  the  highest  ?  Who  shall  speak  with  authority 
to  our  variable  consciousness,  and  summon  it  to  per- 
manent rational  commitment  to  the  best  ?  We  cannot 
obtain  this  great  boon  from  one  another,  for  each  is 
like  the  other.  There  is  none  among  the  sons  of  men 
that  can  speak  with  universal  authority  in  his  own 


WITNESS  OF  THE  SOUL  TO  GOD  131 

name.  Who  shall  give  us  this  boon  of  the  best,  if  it 
be  not  that  Infinite  Good  of  Whose  nature  we  partake  ? 
Must  there  not  come  from  that  Infinite  a  Revealing 
Presence  to  Whom  we  can  go  confidently  and  Who 
shall  say  to  us  absolutely,  "I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life"  ?  But  there  is  in  our  moral  consciousness 
a  bitter  need,  as  well  as  a  great  potency.  We  have  a 
will  that  sets  at  naught  the  soul's  ideal;  that  scruples 
not  to  pay  homage  to  the  temptations  of  sense  and 
to  contest  the  moral  imperative.  Who  shall  deliver 
us  from  the  schism  and  anarchy  that  are  within  us? 
Who  shall  lift  us  out  of  moral  obliquity  and  blindness  ? 
Who  shall  purge  our  corrupt  affections?  Who  shall 
rescue  us  from  the  curse  of  untruth  in  our  spirit  ?  Who 
shall  convict  us  of  sin?  Who  shall  create  in  us  a 
clean  heart  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  us  ?  Can 
we  do  this  for  each  other?  We  try— as  priests,  as 
teachers,  as  brothers — but  it  is  external.  We  cannot 
reach  the  inward  source  of  trouble.  He  only  can  be 
our  Helper,  our  Saviour,  Who  comes  not  in  the  power 
of  an  earthly  commandment,  but  in  the  power  of  an 
endless  life,  out  of  the  depths  of  God.  If  that  ideal  of 
love,  which  in  ourselves  we  discern,  be  a  suggestion 
of  the  very  Essence  of  God,  love  that  is  patient  toward 
the  weak,  compassionate  toward  the  erring,  sym- 
pathetic toward  the  ignorant,  tender  toward  the  sor- 
rowful ;  love  that  enters  into  the  Universal  Life,  rever- 
ences all  men,  has  faith  in  humanity,  if  that  be  a 
suggestion  of  the  central  Essence  of  the  inconceivable 
Godhead,  then,  though  we  cannot  know  that  love  in 
its  shoreless,  soundless  depths,  we  may  be  sure  that  it 


132  BARROWS  LECTURES 

has  not  failed  us,  but  has  spoken,  in  a  Word  that  we 
can  understand. 

So,  the  All-Great,  were  the  All-Loving  too — 
So,  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  Voice 
Saying,  "O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here! 
Face,  my  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  Myself ! 
Thou  hast  no  power  nor  may'st  conceive  of  Mine, 
But  Love  I  gave  thee,  with  Myself  to  love. 
And  thou  must  love  Me,  Who  have  died  for  thee!"^ 

»  Browning,  "  An  Epistle." 


LECTURE  FIVE 

THE  DISTINCTIVE  MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  THE 
CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

Great  religions,  like  great  men,  have  strongly  marked 
distinctions,  whereby  each  is  set  apart  from  others.  An 
eminent  modern  student  of  Greek  civilisation  finds 
that  the  religion  of  Greece  in  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ  was  a  religion  of  joy.  "It  was  a  happy  religion," 
he  says,  "not  dealing  much  with  supernatural  terrors, 
but  identifying  feasts  and  their  pleasures  with  the  wor- 
ship of  deities.  Exuberant  joy,  even  including  disso- 
lute pleasures,  was  included  in  the  religious  celebrations 
of  these  people.  The  joys  of  Greek  religion  were  many 
and  intense,  its  sadness  and  solemnity  were  long  kept 
in  the  background."'  Joy,  then,  was  the  distinction  of 
Greek  religion.  If  one  were  to  ask  for  a  distinction 
whereby  the  Christian  religion  is  set  apart  from  others, 
it  might  be  said  in  reply  that  it  is  a  religion  of  character. 
Many  other  attributes  attach  themselves  to  this  religion. 
It  is  also  a  religion  of  joy,  although  of  joy  conceived, 
related,  and  experienced  otherwise  than  in  Greek 
religion.  Of  the  Christian,  as  of  the  Greek,  it  may  be 
said,  "its  joys  are  many  and  intense."  It  is  a  religion  of 
beauty.  The  faculty  of  aesthetic  judgment  is  highly 
developed  in  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  sensitive  to 
the  beautiful :  the  beautiful  in  God ;  in  the  projections 

I  Cf.    J.     p.     Mahaffy,     D.D.,       tion  (ed.  London,  Macmillan,  1897), 
D.C.L.,  A  Survey  of  Greek  Civilisa-       p.  105. 

133 


134  BARROWS  LECTURES 

of  God's  Being  that  make  the  world  of  Nature;  in 
man,  the  most  wonderful  of  those  projections;  in  man's 
relationships  and  attainments,  domestic  love,  literature, 
art,  science ;  in  the  world  of  ideals,  justice,  mercy,  truth, 
worship.  The  beauty  of  these  is  appreciated  in  the 
Christian  religion;  ''its  joys,  many  and  intense,"  spring 
largely  from  this  source.  It  is  also  a  religion  of  con- 
templation; having  knowledge  as  its  goal.  Its  ritual 
elements  are  least  important.  It  is  essentially  a  religion 
of  the  spirit;  its  altar  is  in  the  soul;  its  incense  is 
thought ;  its  final  law,  obedience  to  the  heavenly  vision ; 
its  goal  of  life,  knowledge  of  the  Godhead  manifested 
in  Christ.  ''This,"  said  the  Lord,  "is  Life  Eternal, 
that  they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  Whom  Thou  hast  sent.'"  It  is,  finally,  a 
religion  of  action.  The  Infinite  Godhead  is  the  Foun- 
tain of  energy,  producing  innumerable  forms  and  modes 
of  life,  beneath  all  of  which  It  is  the  Ground  Sub- 
stance. The  Christian  religion  is  full  of  energy  proceed- 
ing from  this  Source,  finding  vent  in  action.  "My 
Father  worketh  hitherto,"  said  the  Lord,  " and  I  work."* 
Contemplation  prepares  for,  and  issues  in,  action.  By 
contemplation  the  heavenly  vision  is  discerned;  by 
action  it  is  obeyed,  through  the  doing  of  God's  will  on 
earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 

Joy,  beauty,  contemplation,  action  are  impressive 
attributes,  yet  of  no  one  of  them  may  it  be  said  that  it  is 
the  distinction  of  the  Christian  religion,  setting  it  apart 
from  others.  Beneath  these  several  attributes  is  one 
unifying  principle  which  is  that  distinction  and  by 

I  John  17:3.  2  John  5:17. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    135 

virtue  of  which  joy,  beauty,  contemplation,  action  take 
on  new  and  high  significance.  The  Christian  religion 
is  a  religion  of  character.  By  this  is  meant  that  its 
special  function  is  to  contemplate  God  on  the  moral 
side  of  being  in  terms  of  the  ethical  ideal ;  and  to  inter- 
pret life  in  terms  of  righteousness  and  duty. 

There  is  found  in  Christianity,  as  I  have  explained, 
much  that  is  in  other  religions.  With  joy  I  have  pointed 
out  that  toward  some  important  postulates  of  pantheistic 
thought,  the  attitude  of  the  Christian  religion  is  not  con- 
tradictory; it  is  supplementary.  But  I  wish  to  make 
myself  clearly  understood  as  defining  the  sense  in  which 
the  Christian  religion  supplements  man's  earlier  reli- 
gious experience.  There  is  an  external  sense,  as  when 
we  add  one  number  to  another,  or  set  one  object  by  the 
side  of  another.  There  is  an  internal  sense,  as  when  we 
introduce  a  principle  which  works  as  a  transforming 
element,  recombining  pre-existing  material  of  conscious- 
ness and  giving  thereto  new  meaning  and  value.  In  the 
latter  sense  Christianity  supplements  pantheism;  not 
by  external  addition  of  dogmas  and  precepts,  but  by 
introduction  of  a  principle  involving  contemplation  of 
God  and  interpretation  of  life,  that  gives  new  meaning 
to  each  and  joins  both  in  unity,  not  of  passive  existence 
alone,  but  of  active  purpose.  If  I  may  use  an  illustra- 
tion proposed  by  another:  "The  new  element  which 
Christianity  has  introduced  into  the  thought  of  the 
world  transforms,  elevates,  works  a  fundamental  change 
in  all  the  previous  materials  of  religious  knowledge.  It 
takes  up  these  materials  into  itself,  but  it  takes  them  up 
as  the  plant  takes  up  air  and  earth  and  moisture  and 


136  BARROWS  LECTURES 

light,  or  as  the  living  body  takes  up  the  matter  which 
constitutes  its  food — not  transferring  them  wholesale, 
but  by  its  inward  organic  chemistry,  subduing,  disinte- 
grating, reconstructing  all  that  it  receives  into  similitude 
with  its  own  nature."'  The  purpose  of  my  lecture  is 
to  consider  this  new  element  which  Christianity  has 
introduced  into  the  thought  of  the  world.  I  am  to 
speak  of  "The  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the 
Christian  Religion'' — the  religion  of  character.  By 
using  this  expression  I  am  far  from  intending  to  imply 
that  the  ethical  element  is  not  present  in  other  religions. 
My  purpose  is  to  show  that  in  Christianity  (considered 
in  its  pure  essence)  the  ethical  is  brought  into  such 
fundamental  relation  with  the  metaphysic  of  the  religion, 
and  is  placed  in  such  primacy  of  influence  as  the  central 
principle  around  which  the  entire  Christian  Conscious- 
ness is  organised,  that  it  does  in  fact  amount  to  a  new 
element  introduced  into  the  thought  of  the  world.  We 
look  for  the  ethical,  and  find  it  in  all  religions.  Its 
presence  is  necessary  because  moral  consciousness  is  a 
fact  of  human  life.  Wherever  man  is,  there  is  the  poten- 
tial sense  of  right  and  wrong,  welling  up  into  his  life 
from  that  Infinite  Moral  Consciousness  out  of  which  he 
springs.  Both  the  grade  and  degree  of  ethical  expres- 
sion found  in  any  religion  or  individual  depend  on  the 
extent  to  which  culture  of  the  ethical  sense  has  taken 
place.  Where  this  culture  is  most  deficient,  the  moral 
quality  in  religion  is  rudimentary  and  of  little  impor- 
tance. Where  culture  of  the  ethical  sense  is  most  mature, 

I  C/.     Principal     Cairo,     The      (ed.  Glasgow,  James  Maclehose  & 
Fundamental  Ideas  of    Christianity      Son,  1899),  Vol.  I,  pp.  21,  22. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    137 

the  value  of  the  moral  element  in  religion  rises  to  high 
power.  If  the  culture  of  the  ethical  sense  were  com- 
plete, the  moral  element  in  religion  would  be  supreme; 
religion  would  become  the  interpretation  of  righteous- 
ness. The  distinction  of  the  Christian  religion  is  that 
it  puts  the  ethical  first ;  it  makes  it  a  condition  as  well  as 
a  result  of  the  higher  knowledge  of  God.  ^^The  fear 
of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom:  and  the 
knowledge  of  the  Holy  One  is  understanding."'  "Fol- 
low peace  with  all  men  and  holiness,  without  which  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord."^  "Why  call  ye  me  Lord, 
Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say  ?"^  "Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."'^  In  con- 
sequence of  this  primacy  of  the  ethical,  the  Christian 
religion  takes  up  into  itself,  invests  with  new  meaning, 
adapts  to  new  ends,  the  several  attributes  which  appear 
as  the  distinctions  of  other  religions.  Joy,  in  a  religion 
where  the  ethical  is  less  prized  than  the  emotional,  might 
mean  the  effect  of  self-indulgent  pleasures,  or  even,  as 
was  the  case  in  old  Greek  religion,  the  egoistic  excite- 
ment of  dissolute  pursuits.  In  a  religion  of  character 
where  the  ethical  takes  rank  above  all  other  interests, 
joy  means  pure  and  exquisite  elevation  of  the  soul  pro- 
duced by  conformity  to  an  ideal  of  righteousness.  It  is 
not  a  lesser  but  a  greater  interpretation  of  joy.  Joy 
sought  through  self-indulgence  and  at  the  cost  of  right 
rends  the  unity  of  consciousness  and,  after  the  force  of 
excitement  is  spent,  gives  place  to  affliction,  discontent, 
disgust.     Joy  produced  by  self-fulfilment  in  righteous- 

1  Prov.  9:10.  3  Luke  6 :  46. 

2  Heb.  12:14.  *  Matt.  5:8. 


138  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ness,  by  obedience  to  a  heavenly  vision,  by  choice  of 
light  as  against  darkness,  by  unification  of  life  in  God, 
is  a  tree  whose  fruitage  of  delight  is  perpetual,  a  well 
whose  sweet  water  cannot  fail.  In  God's  presence  there 
is  fulness  of  joy,  at  His  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  for 
evermore. '  Beauty,  in  a  religion  where  the  sensuous  is 
prized  above  the  ethical,  might  mean  devotion  to  the 
external;  worship  of  form,  deification  of  physical  in- 
stinct. In  a  religion  of  character  the  soul's  interest  lies 
within  the  veil  of  the  unseen,  amidst  correspondences  of 
thought  and  purpose  with  eternal  facts  of  God's  moral 
consciousness.  Ideals  of  beauty  appear  before  it, 
possessing  a  charm  that  exterior  forms  may  suggest  but 
cannot  supply.  The  heaven  of  righteousness  opens  to 
the  soul's  eye,  disclosing  the  fascination  of  wisdom. 
The  fashion  of  the  sensuous  passes;  the  beauty  of  good- 
ness, founded  in  reality,  remains  the  same  yesterday,  and 
to-day,  and  for  ever.  Contemplation,  in  a  religion  where 
the  metaphysic  of  Being  is  the  all-absorbing  object,  be- 
comes an  intellectual  end  in  itself.  By  the  esoteric 
doctrine  of  an  incorruptible  soul,  distinct  from  mind 
and  will,  the  seed  of  the  Absolute  in  the  finite,  without 
thought,  purpose,  active  sin,  or  holiness,  there  is  attain- 
ment of  concentration  but  loss  of  development.  The 
witness  to  the  Infinite  in  the  moral  consciousness  is 
disregarded;  the  expansion  of  personality  on  the  side 
of  efficiency  is  sacrificed;  the  forceful  play  of  qualities 
trained  for  life's  work  in  the  school  of  prayer  and  experi- 
ence is  resigned  in  favour  of  a  metaphysical  destiny. 
In  a  religion  of  character  contemplation  is  not  rejected 

iC/.  Ps.  16:11. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    139 

but  carried  up  to  a  higher  power.  Without  guilty  pre- 
sumption it  undertakes  to  gaze  upon  the  wholeness  of 
the  Infinite ;  not,  indeed,  with  any  hope  of  complete  dis- 
covery, but  because  of  inward  compulsion.  It  cannot 
otherwise  think  of  God  than  as  the  Source  of  man's 
whole  life,  moral  as  well  as  intellectual ;  therefore  Him- 
self the  Ideal  of  Character  as  well  as  the  Fount  of  Being. 
Contemplation  becomes  not  a  metaphysical  end,  at- 
tained by  isolation  from  moral  distinctions,  but  an 
ethical  means  making  for  godlikeness.  The  contempla- 
tive life,  discerning,  through  Christ's  interpretation  of 
the  same,  the  modes  of  an  ideal  righteousness,  reflects 
as  in  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord  and,  ultimately,  is 
changed  into  the  same  image.  Action,  in  a  religion 
where  ritual  performance  has  become  a  more  pressing 
imperative  than  moral  attainment,  always  tends  to 
externalise  God;  to  make  Him  a  being  like  ourselves 
standing  apart  from  us  and  receiving  our  acts  of  homage. 
The  history  of  religion  shows  that  the  tendency  of  igno- 
rance is  to  adopt  religions  whose  distinction  is  action, 
the  doing  of  ritual  deeds,  the  performance  of  a  round  of 
ceremonialism  prescribed  by  authority.  Possibly  von 
Hartmann  is  right  when  he  describes  this  as  "a  mechan- 
ical religious  cultus  which  is  the  easiest  and  the  most 
empty  of  ideas." '  It  may  be  this  under  certain  circum- 
stances; a  pathetic  resort  of  ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion, because  its  complete  externalism  can  be  followed 
easily  by  such  as  have  not  learned  to  think.  Yet  it  must 
be^said  also  that  not  alone  to  ignorance  and  superstition 
does  there  appear  attraction  in  a  religion  that  sets 

I  C/.  Religion  of  the  Future,  p.  99. 


I40  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ritual  performance  above  moral  attainment.  There  are 
reasons  other  than  ignorance,  that  dissuade  us  from 
looking  within  ourselves.  When  the  soul  has  not  bowed 
in  allegiance  to  the  claim  of  righteousness,  nor  sought 
to  bring  the  desires  of  the  flesh  under  control  of  a  higher 
law  of  good,  a  religion  of  action  offers  escape  from  the 
rebuke  of  conscience.  We  attempt  to  palliate  wrong  in 
the  soul  by  busily  fulfilling  acts  that  bear  the  name 
of  religion  yet  make  light  demands  on  our  reflective 
powers.  We  attempt  to  propitiate  God  by  making  clean 
the  outward  way  of  conduct,  while  the  inward  way  of 
thought  remains  uncleansed.  A  religion  of  character 
believes  in  action,  but  only  as  expressing  moral  purpose, 
inspired  by  vision  of  God.  "  Cast  out  first,"  says  Christ, 
"the  beam  out  of  thine  own  eye,  and  then  shalt  thou  see 
clearly  to  cast  out  the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye."* 
Pious  actions,  gifts,  sacrifices  are,  in  the  code  of  a  reli- 
gion of  character,  without  value  save  as  they  are  preceded 
and  accompanied  by  an  inward  unifying  of  thought  and 
purpose  with  the  most  pure  and  true  that  we  know. 
"Thou  delightest  not  in  sacrifice,  else  would  I  give  it: 
Thou  hast  no  pleasure  in  burnt  offering.  The  sacri- 
fices of  God  are  a  broken  spirit :  a  broken  and  a  contrite 
heart,  O  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise."^  When  this 
inward  unifying  of  thought  with  the  ethical  ideal  takes 
place  in  a  religion  of  character,  the  whole  field  of  action 
is  flooded  with  sacred  light.  There  remains  no  funda- 
mental distinction  between  holy  and  common  action, 
for  all  actions  are  made  holy  by  the  pure  moral  purpose 
in  which  they  are  done.    The  body,  as  well  as  the  mind, 

I  Matt.  7:5.  «  Ps.  51:16,  17. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    141 

becomes  a  temple  of  God.  All  days,  places,  estates  of 
life  are  unified  and  dignified  by  one  central  purpose  of 
good,  commanding  the  rational  soul.  Life  itself  be- 
comes blessed  through  the  all-consecrating  power  of  its 
ideal.  As  of  old  in  Greece,  over  the  gateway  of  the 
beautiful  temple  of  Epidaurus,  was  inscribed:  "He 
that  would  enter  the  fragrant  shrine  must  be  pure,  and 
purity  is  to  think  holy  things,"'  so,  over  the  temple 
gate  of  our  earthly  life,  the  religion  of  character  sets 
these  words:  "Whether  therefore  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or 
whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God."^ 

By  these  examples,  in  several  relations  of  joy,  beauty, 
contemplation,  and  action,  I  have  sought  to  show  how 
a  religion  of  character,  through  establishing  the  primacy 
of  the  ethical,  may  be  said  to  introduce  a  new  element 
into  the  thought  of  the  world  and,  in  that  sense,  to  sup- 
plement the  earlier  religious  experience  of  man.  Hav- 
ing reached  this  point,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  presence 
of  a  question  larger  and  more  fundamental.  Wherein 
consists  the  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian 
Religion  ?  If  the  distinction  of  the  Christian  religion  is 
in  the  fact  of  its  being  a  religion  of  character,  from  what 
source  does  it  obtain  that  distinction  ?  The  importance 
of  a  distinction  is  judged  by  what  lies  at  the  back  of  it; 
the  distinction  of  wealth  by  substance  and  extent  of 
fortune  on  which  it  is  based ;  the  distinction  of  military 
fame  by  deeds  and  achievements  on  record ;  the  distinc- 
tion of  scholarship  by  thoroughness  of  training  and 
intellectual  work;  the  distinction  of  moral  authority  by 

I  Noted  by  Clement  of  Alexan-      Oxford,    Clarendon    Press,     1886), 
dria,    Strom.,  V,    I,  13.      See   also      p.  92. 
Bigg,     Christian     Platonists     (ed.  ^jCor.  10:31. 


142  BARROWS  LECTURES 

the  source  whence  it  issues.  It  is  sometimes  understood 
by  members  of  other  religions  (and  I  think  not  unnatu- 
rally) that  the  distinction  of  the  Christian  religion  as  a 
religion  of  character  is  supposed  by  its  disciples  to  rest 
on  their  own  achievements,  on  churchly  institutions, 
on  the  civilisation  of  the  West,  on  theological  tradition, 
on  ecclesiastical  authority,  or  on  general  assumptions 
of  superiority.  But  those  of  my  learned  hearers  who 
have  done  me  the  honour  to  follow  my  lectures  to  this 
point  have  observed  that  my  position  is  precisely  oppo- 
site to  that  implied  in  any  such  assumptions  of  supe- 
riority. I  do  not  disparage  the  religious  institutions  of 
the  West  when  I  say  that  the  strongest  and  best  of  them 
could  furnish  but  an  insecure  foundation  for  so  unique 
and  vast  a  structure  as  the  Christian  religion.  The  fair 
city  of  San  Francisco  tottered  and  fell  upon  the  quaking 
ground  beneath  her;  so  had  Christianity  long  since 
sunk  in  ruins  if  her  foundation  had  been  the  institutions, 
dogmas,  tradition,  or  prestige  of  a  single  group  of  na- 
tions. Not  to  any  of  these  do  we  turn,  or  dream  of  turn- 
ing in  our  search  for  the  sources  whence  arose  this 
religion  of  character.  It  made  the  ethical  interest  su- 
preme by  evolving  it  from  the  most  mystical  sources.  It 
drew  that  interest  forth  from  the  most  abstruse  and 
ancient  consciousness  of  the  pre-historic  world,  gathering 
its  essence  more  and  more  into  the  similitude  of  person- 
ality, until,  in  the  fulness  of  time  it  appeared  among  us, 
my  brethren,  incarnate  in  the  Man  of  men ;  and  a  Voice 
declared:  "Thou  shalt  call  His  Name  Jesus,  for  it  is  He 
that  shall  save  His  people  from  their  sins."' 

I  Matt.  1:21. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    143 

Again  and  again,  in  the  course  of  these  lectures,  I 
have  called  for  your  co-operation  as  Orientals,  sub- 
limely gifted  with  powers  to  discern  truth  lying  beneath 
the  surface  of  things,  I  have  asked  that  you  shall  give  me 
your  loving  fellowship  of  spirit,  as  I,  with  all  the  limita- 
tions of  my  Western  life  upon  me,  save  that  my  heart 
beats  with  yours,  have  attempted  to  trace  the  mystery 
of  godliness,  to  describe  the  Witness  of  God  in  the  Soul 
and  the  Witness  of  the  Soul  to  God.  At  no  point  have 
I  so  desired  your  fellowship  as  now,  when  I  essay  to 
speak  of  the  unfolding  upon  earth  of  the  religion  of 
character.  Whence  came  it  that  a  faith,  whose  central 
principle  is  the  primacy  of  the  ethical,  arose  in  the  earth 
and  entered  into  the  experience  of  our  race  ?  St.  John  in 
his  Gospel  speaks  of  new  lives  of  enlightenment  which 
were  bom  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor 
of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God. '  We  must  admit,  con- 
cerning the  Christian  religion,  that  it  was  born  not  of 
the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man.  It  was  not 
planned  in  the  councils  of  power,  nor  promulgated  by 
earthly  authority.  He  Who  appeared  as  its  Repre- 
sentative and  Interpreter  was  despised  and  rejected  of 
men,  a  Man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief.  The 
immediate  range  of  His  influence,  during  the  earthly 
ministry,  was  limited.  The  importance  of  what  He  was 
communicating  to  the  world  was  understood  by  few 
and  by  those,  until  their  full  enlightenment  came,  but 
in  part.  When,  as  the  result  of  His  ideals  and  teachings, 
He  was  swept  to  death  on  a  wave  of  envy  and  malice,  it 
seemed  that  one  more  child  of  light  had  disappeared  in 

I  C/.  John  1:12,  13. 


144  BARROWS  LECTURES 

the  world's  dark  ocean  of  sorrow.  But  that  deep  engulf- 
ment  of  His  Life  marked  the  beginning  of  His  Glory. 
Death  could  not  detain  Him.  It  was  not  possible  that 
He  should  be  holden  of  it.  With  His  rising  again  evi- 
dence began  to  accumulate,  evidence  still  accumulating 
after  two  thousand  years,  and  silently  extending  into 
every  part  of  the  known  earth,  that  in  His  Person  a  new 
element  entered  into  the  life  of  the  world,  "transforming 
and  working  a  fundamental  change  in  all  the  previous 
materials  of  religious  knowledge."  That  element  is 
the  Religion  of  Character.  As  I  discuss  to-night  before 
you  the  moral  authority  of  this  religion,"!  do  so,  if  I  am 
capable  of  knowing  my  own  mind,  as  one  approaching 
the  subject  from  the  outside.  I  put  aside  my  training 
within  this  religion,  my  Christian  ancestry,  my  Chris- 
tian country,  my  Christian  tradition,  as  matters  irrele- 
vant to  the  conditions  in  which  I  find  myself  at  this 
moment.  The  only  personal  feeling  of  which  I  make 
no  attempt  to  divest  myself  is  that  of  affectionate  desire 
to  win  to  the  thoughtful  study  of  this  religion  of  char- 
acter men  who  by  their  profound  acquaintance  with  the 
religion  of  Being  are  prepared  to  assimilate  whatever 
may  supplement,  enrich,  and  expand  that  primary  postu- 
late of  consciousness.  I  have  before  me  as  data  for  my 
problem  the  general  religious  consciousness  of  the  world 
and  its  philosophical  significance.  I  have  the  specific 
history  of  Christian  experience  as  an  ethical  knowledge 
of  God  realised  through  Christ.  I  have  the  historic  fact 
of  Jesus  Christ  (a  fact,  the  authenticity  of  which  no 
longer  is  questioned).  I  have  the  Bible,  with  interpre- 
tations of  the  significance  of  Christ's  Nature  given  by 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    145 

men  who  came  most  immediately  under  His  power. 
Last  of  all  I  have  myself,  with  the  independent,  invol- 
untary witness  of  my  own  moral  consciousness  to  what 
this  religion  of  character  tends  to  accomplish  in  my  life, 
so  far  as  I  submit  to  its  power.  All  of  this  is  as  open  to 
you  as  to  me.  Let  us  share  it  together,  as  friends  and 
companions  in  the  search  for  truth.  Permit  me  to  tell 
you  what  answer  I  seem  to  receive,  when  I  approach 
this  new  element  that  has  come  into  the  life  of  the  world, 
this  religion  that  interprets  all  things  in  terms  of  the 
ethical  sense,  and  ask  of  it  whence  it  has  arisen.  It  is 
too  great  a  phenomenon  readily  to  be  accounted  for. 
The  signs  of  external  greatness  which  have  attached 
themselves  in  the  course  of  time  are  the  least  significant 
and  the  least  important.  From  them  I  would  with- 
draw your  eyes  that  I  may  fix  them  on  other  and  better 
things.  I  would  not  have  you  to  suppose  that,  when  I 
speak  of  the  greatness  of  the  Christian  religion,  I  mean 
greatness  in  the  worldly  sense,  splendour  of  buildings, 
sumptuous  ceremonialism,  far-reaching  sway  of  author- 
ity, pomps  and  dignities  of  office.  These  are  things 
that  nationalise  religion ;  that  give  to  it  the  appearance 
of  a  Western  cult;  that  disincline  the  mind  of  the  East 
from  serious  thought  concerning  it.  I  am  speaking  of 
a  greatness  that  is  not  of  this  world,  that  transcends 
all  outward  forms  and  reveals  itself  through  modes  of 
the  Spirit. 

When  I  approach  this  phenomenon,  the  religion  of 
character,  which  has  power  to  cause  man's  active  reli- 
gious consciousness  to  pass  through  the  lens  of  an 
ethical  ideal  and  thus  to  be  changed  from  colourless 


146  BARROWS  LECTURES 

meditation  upon  Being  into  vivid  forms  of  moral  expe- 
rience, I  find  that  I  am  investigating  a  power  whose 
sources  are  many  and  profound.  For  the  satisfaction 
of  my  spirit  I  ask.  Whence  has  it  arisen,  on  what  does 
it  depend  ?  It  answers :  He  who  would  apprehend  the 
Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian  Religion 
must  first  consider  the  nature  of  man,  the  nature  of  God, 
and  the  need  of  a  religion  of  character  in  the  world. 
He  must  then  consider  the  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
the  power  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Christian  Consciousness; 
and  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Revelation  of  the 
Heart  of  God. 

I  do  not  deem  it  inappropriate  that,  at  certain  points, 
my  lecture  should  take  on  the  form  of  autobiography  and 
become  for  the  moment  a  record  of  personal  experience. 
Every  man,  accustomed  to  reflection,  finds  the  higher 
interests  of  religion  to  be  personal ;  not  exterior  to  him- 
self but  pressing  themselves  home  to  the  inner  life  of 
consciousness  and  sub-consciousness.  So  long  as  religion 
signifies  chiefly  external  fulfilment  of  ritual,  submission 
to  outward  authority,  or  worship  of  outward  objects,  our 
knowledge  of  its  reality  is  scarcely  begun;  we  are  yet 
babes  in  spiritual  discernment,  whose  life  is  in  the 
limited  realm  of  sensory  impressions,  not  yet  having 
entered  the  broad  inheritance  of  the  Spirit.  That  there 
is  a  measure  of  satisfaction  in  the  religion  of  the  external 
is  obvious,  even  as  the  babe  has  its  own  type  and 
measure  of  happiness,  in  watching  shadows  dance  upon 
the  floor,  or  gazing  on  the  gaily  coloured  toy  in  its  hand. 
In  each  case  it  is  the  satisfaction  of  incompleteness. 
The  babe  is  delighted  with  the  play  of  sensory  impres- 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    147 

sions,  because  its  powers  of  reflection  have  not  yet 
come  to  self-consciousness  and  made  their  demand  for 
recognition.  The  complacent  worshipper  of  the  exter- 
nal is  content,  because  the  development  of  the  soul 
is  unequal.  Ignorant  alike  of  its  greater  needs  and 
powers,  he  becomes  a  man  in  years  but  remains  a  child 
in  knowledge.  Let  the  soul  verily  awake,  arise  from 
dreams  and  plays  of  an  inchoate  consciousness  to 
mature  reflection;  let  it  take  note  of  its  own  deep  self- 
hood and  consider  unimaginable  longings  put  forth  by 
perceptions  and  affinities  buried  in  its  sub-conscious 
life.  Thus,  coming  to  itself,  it  demands  a  religion 
which  shall  not  be  completed  in  outward  ritual  or  sacri- 
fice, but  in  "the  immediate  feeling  of  a  sympathetic 
Divine  Presence."  It  matters  not  whether  a  man  have 
behind  him  an  ancestry  Hindu,  Mohammedan,  or 
Christian.  Traditions,  however  great  or  good,  cannot 
take  the  place  of  experience,  after  our  reflective  powers 
have  awakened.  One  by  one,  each  in  his  own  way,  we 
seek  God  and  are  found  of  Him.  I  have  had  the  purest 
Christian  ancestry,  through  many  generations.  As  a 
child,  its  mild  momentum,  like  a  soft-flowing  stream, 
bore  me  unresisting  in  the  current  of  Christian  observ- 
ances. But  when  I  became  a  man,  the  voice  of  a  deeper 
self  spoke  within  me,  refusing  to  be  silenced  by  my 
vague  efforts  to  submit  to  the  conventional  and  to  be- 
lieve as  others  believed.  When,  thinking  to  satisfy  that 
protesting  voice,  I  appealed  to  the  external  as  it  stretched 
back  into  the  past — my  Christian  ancestry,  the  Church, 
the  word  of  authority,  the  continuity  of  Christian  experi- 
ence— my  reflecting  self  told  me  that  in  all  these  there 


148  BARROWS  LECTURES 

could  be  no  final  authority  for  me,  save  in  those  elements 
that  might  be  verified  and  assimilated  in  my  own  moral 
consciousness.  When,  seeking  firmer  ground,  I  ap- 
pealed to  the  external  as  it  lay  around  me  in  the  world 
of  contemporary  thought,  I  found  only  confusion  and 
the  strife  of  tongues.  Many,  absorbed  in  materialistic 
theory,  were  questioning  the  validity  of  the  unseen. 
Many,  active  in  criticism,  were  demonstrating  by  ap- 
peals to  history  the  need  of  formidable  reconstructions 
in  the  philosophy  and  history  of  religion.  Many,  loyal 
to  great  traditional  inheritances,  were  seeking  to  cover 
them  from  assaults  of  scholarship.  Many,  "lacking 
the  real  historical  sense  and  psychological  understand- 
ing in  handling  religious  problems,'"  were  applying  to 
the  Christian  Scriptures  and  to  the  religious  conscious- 
ness of  early  Christianity  a  form  of  rationalistic  test  that 
completely  antagonised  faith  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ. 
It  was  evident  to  my  reflecting  self  that  I  need  expect  no 
voice  from  the  uproar  of  clamouring  tongues  with  a 
final  message  of  authority;  that  I  need  look  for  no 
teacher  to  emerge  from  the  throng  of  disputants  and 
give,  by  some  magical  word  of  certainty,  appeasement 
to  my  doubts  and  fears.  I  knew  at  last  that  I  must  go 
within  myself,  bearing  thither  all  the  gains  of  study,  all 
the  fruits  of  experience,  all  the  conflicting  opinions  of 
men.  I  knew  that  I  must  retire  to  the  inner  sanctuary 
of  soul-consciousness;  where,  for  each  one  of  us,  did 
we  but  know,  is  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High,  the 
shadow  of  the  Almighty.     I  knew  that  I  must  meditate, 

I  C/.  Pfleiderer,  Christian  Ori-      Ph.D.;  ed.  London,  n.  d.,  T.  Fisher 
gins    (transl.  by    D.    A.    Huebsch,       Unwin),  Introd.,  p.  12. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    149 

and  wait,  and  watch,  and  pray,  until  a  Power  not  myself 
should  collect,  organise,  unify,  interpret,  and  fill  with 
life  diffused  impressions  of  a  supreme  reality  as  yet 
ungrasped;  until  that  Power  should  tell  me  the  secret 
of  the  Christian  religion  and  bring  me  to  the  peace  of 
God,  which  is  the  Truth.  Long  years  of  waiting  fol- 
lowed years  of  indeterminate  experience,  as  of  a  spirit 
moving  about  in  worlds  unrealised ;  years  of  self-contra- 
diction in  practise,  because  of  vagueness  in  philosophy ; 
years  of  incomplete  perception  of  the  basis  of  ethical 
reality.  But  they  were  years  of  growth,  even  as  they 
were  years  of  the  great  patience  and  mercy  of  God.  If 
they  have  borne  any  fruitage  of  reality,  it  is  that  which 
I  bring  to  you.  I  am  here,  as  you  well  know,  not  pre- 
suming, in  a  spirit  of  pride,  to  teach  you,  who  in  many 
ways  could  teach  me.  The  deep  secret  of  the  Christian 
religion  cannot  be  taught  externally,  by  one  to  another. 
No  one  man,  nor  any  number  of  men,  can  project,  by 
force  of  authority  or  weight  of  argument,  into  another's 
heart  this  sense  of  having  found,  through  the  religious 
consciousness,  a  basis  of  ethical  reality  upon  which  all 
one's  personal  life  and  all  the  life  of  the  world  may  at 
last  be  unified.  The  things  of  the  Spirit  are  spiritually 
discerned.  But  sometimes  there  is  a  power  of  sugges- 
tion in  testimony  founded  on  experience,  and  therefore 
I  am  here.  Speaking  wholly  in  the  spirit  of  suggestion, 
may  I  now  indicate  the  steps  that  should  be  taken,  and 
the  objects  that  should  be  considered,  by  one  seeking 
in  the  Christian  religion,  as  a  religion  of  character,  a 
basis  of  ethical  reality  P 

The  starting-point  is  one's  self.    Wonderful  is  the 


15©  BARROWS  LECTURES 

fascination  of  the  study  of  self.  Thousands  of  years 
ago  a  great  Hebrew  lyric  was  written,  in  which  the  poet, 
after  acknowledging  the  glories  of  nature,  concludes 
that  the  supreme  wonder  of  existence  is  man. 

When  I  consider  Thy  heavens,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the 
moon  and  the  stars  which  Thou  hast  ordained,  what  is  man  that 
Thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  and  the  son  of  man  that  Thou  visitest 
him  ?  For  Thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  God,  and 
crownest  him  with  glory  and  honour.' 

The  seers  of  pantheism  studied  the  Absolute  through 
the  study  of  the  self  and  wrought  out  a  philosophy  of 
Being  which,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  acceptance  or 
rejection,  has  affected  the  entire  philosophical  thinking 
of  the  world.  It  is,  as  I  need  not  explain  to  this  cul- 
tured audience,  the  philosophy  of  absolute  idealism, 
which  identifies  the  finite  self  with  the  Universal  Self; 
making  man  and  God  one.  Upon  the  basis  laid  down 
in  pantheism  has  occurred,  as  I  have  already  pointed 
out,  further  research  into  the  mystery  of  the  self.  The 
attempt  to  fathom  the  secret  of  its  being  is  now  paralleled 
by  the  effort  to  discern  the  modes  and  qualities  of  its 
nature;  to  comprehend ^  that  is  to  say,  not  only  the 
existence  of  the  self  but  its  character.  Lying  evidently 
upon  the  surface  of  the  self  we  find  action,  conduct, 
innumerable  multitudes  of  deeds  and  words.  Wonder- 
ful are  these  results  and  products  of  selfhood,  considered 
in  their  relation  to  the  world.  We  stand  amazed  before 
the  potential  influence  of  deeds  and  words.  Many  of 
them  are,  of  necessity,  shortlived  and  apparently  unim- 
portant; others  carry  with  them  incalculable  and  ever- 

iPs.  8:3-5. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    151 

lasting  effects.  Deeds,  wrought  by  a  single  self,  or  by  a 
few  of  these  mysterious  selves  in  co-operation,  have 
changed  the  face  of  the  world.  Words,  spoken  ages 
ago,  live  and  speak  to-day,  thrilling  the  souls  of  the 
living.  Beneath  the  deeds  and  words  of  the  self  we 
find  thought,  with  all  varied  equipments  of  the  intellect : 
perception,  reason,  judgment,  memory,  consciousness, 
self-knowledge.  Who  can  describe  in  adequate  words 
this  subtle,  delicate,  and  beauteous  gift  of  thought;  this 
well  of  living  water  springing  up  within  the  mind ;  this 
eagle  of  mentality  spreading  broad  pinions  to  soar  to  the 
heights  or  fly  to  the  ends  of  the  world;  this  garden  of 
beauty,  producing  flowers  more  lovely  than  lilies  and 
amaranths;  this  torch,  kindled  in  the  fire  of  eternal 
wisdom,  to  give  lights  of  knowledge  to  them  that  sit  in 
darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death.  But  when  we 
have  taken  note  of  action  and  thought,  there  remains  a 
region  of  the  self  separable  in  theory,  if  not  in  fact,  from 
other  elements  of  the  mind ;  appearing  to  extend  down 
toward  those  depths  of  which  I  have  spoken  in  a  former 
lecture,  the  depths  of  the  sub-conscious  life.  There, 
where  the  calculable  and  definite  processes  of  thought 
broaden  out  toward  infinity,  where  thoughts  that  can  be 
put  into  words  mingle  with  those  "that  break  through  lan- 
guage and  escape,"  we  discern  in  the  self  two  elements, 
the  foundations  of  which  are  planted  too  deep  in  Ulti- 
mate Being  to  be  explored  fully  by  reason :  I  mean  the 
will  and  the  ethical  element.  Will  is  the  power  of  initia- 
tive ;  the  power  of  choice ;  the  executive.  It  reacts  con- 
tinually upon  thought,  producing  decisions  and  their 
volitional  effects.     How  the  will  acts  I  know  not;   in 


152  BARROWS  LECTURES 

what  manner  it  lays  hold  of  thought,  reacts  upon  feeling, 
accomplishes  choice,  I  know  not.  We  must  agree  with 
von  Hartmann : 

The  laboratory  of  volition  is  hidden  in  the  Unconscious;  we 
can  only  get  to  see  the  finished  result,  and  then  only  at  the  moment 
when  it  in  fact  comes  to  practical  application.  The  glances  that 
we  throw  into  that  laboratory  never  reveal  those  unconscious 
depths  of  the  soul  where  occur  the  reaction  of  the  will  on  motives 
and  its  passage  into  definite  volition.^ 

In  that  solemn  depth  the  will  is  not  alone.  There 
also  is  the  ethical  sense — the  intuition  of  right.  As,  in 
the  Old  Testament  story,  there  walked  with  the  three 
that  were  thrown  for  conscience'  sake  into  the  furnace 
of  fire,  a  fourth,  having  the  similitude  of  the  Son  of  God,  ^ 
so,  in  that  lowest  crucible  of  the  soul,  where  fiery  motives 
play  upon  the  wUl  and  solicit  its  reaction,  there  is  another 
element  present,  having  the  simHtude  of  eternal  right- 
eousness. In  my  last  lecture  I  dwelt  upon  the  ethical 
element  in  consciousness.  It  is  the  capacity  of  moral 
distinction,  the  power  to  discern  good  and  evil.  It  is 
the  sense  of  the  value  of  good ;  the  authority  of  good  for 
ourselves ;  its  right  to  command  us,  to  compel  us  to  say, 
"I  ought." 

I  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious,  still  more  remote  from  our  conscious- 

Vol.  I,  p.  263.     Cf.  also  the  observa-  ness  and  the  sublimated  ego  of  pure 

tion  of  VON  Hartmann  {op.  cit.,  p.  self-consciousness  than  anything  else 

264):  "  This  inmost  care  of  the  indi-  in  us.     We  can  most  easily  get  to 

vidual  soul,  whose  eflSux  is  the  char-  know  this  deepest  core  of  ourselves 

acter;     that   most  strictly  practical  in  the  same  way  as  we  come  to  know 

ego  of  the  human  being,  to  which  that  of  other  men,  namely,  by  infer- 

one  reckons  desert  and  guilt,  and  ences  from  action." 

ascribes  responsibility;   this  peculiar  ^  ^i  -^^^    chao 
essence,  which  we  ourselves  are,  is 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION     153 

The  self  is  not  one  but  many.  Every  man  feels  it 
within  him,  and,  looking  into  his  brother's  eyes,  beholds 
it  there  also.  It  matters  not  where  he  looks:  at  the 
brother  by  blood,  born  of  the  same  mother;  at  the 
brother  by  tribe  and  by  race,  sharing  the  same  tradi- 
tions; or  at  the  stranger,  the  alien,  with  whom  he  deems 
himself  to  have  nothing  in  common.  Let  him  look 
where  he  may,  always  a  self  looks  back  at  him  in  return. 
Whether  he  will  or  no,  as  the  other  eyes  meet  his,  in 
friendship,  hatred,  or  indifference;  in  knowledge,  igno- 
rance, purity,  or  sin;  the  self  is  there,  disguised,  con- 
cealed, perverted,  or  confessed.  Never  have  I  had  this 
borne  in  upon  me  with  such  startling  clearness  as  in  the 
Oriental  world.  My  selfhood  pierces  through  the  veil, 
woven  of  a  thousand  strands  of  difference,  and  meets  on 
the  other  side  the  answering  eyes  of  a  similar  elemental 
self.  So  we  conclude  that  these  many  selves  are  one; 
that  they  are  not  isolated  facts  of  being,  appearing 
fortuitously  like  motes  in  a  sunbeam.  They  are  differ- 
entiated indeed  into  self-contained  responsible  person- 
alities, yet  are  they  nevertheless  one  in  the  Common 
Ground  and  Source  of  their  being.  The  ocean  enters  the 
land  by  ten  thousand  inlets,  each  distinct  in  itself  and 
marked  by  its  own  environment,  yet  all  are  one  in  that 
all  are  filled  by  one  inrush  of  a  single  tide.  A  boat  may 
pass  from  inlet  to  inlet  because  upborne  by  a  common 
element  that  enters  all.  So  the  innumerable  selves  that 
open  like  inlets  to  receive  the  common  tide  of  an  undif- 
ferentiated ocean  of  life  are  many  yet  one.  Many,  in 
that  each  stands  in  its  own  environment  and  flows  in  its 
own  channel;   one,  in  that  one  tide  from  a  shoreless, 


154  BARROWS  LECTURES 

soundless  sea  of  life  flows  and  ebbs  within  their  finite 
channels.  Because  of  that  one  tide  of  immanent  life, 
thoughts  and  feelings,  intellectual  and  moral  affinities, 
relationships  of  the  spirit  pass  and  repass,  speak  and 
answer,  enter  and  return. 

As  we  ponder  this  mystery :  the  oneness  in  diversity 
of  the  innumerable  selves;  the  monism  in  pluralism, 
which  is,  I  believe,  the  most  adequate  and  rational  inter- 
pretation of  personality,  reached  either  by  philosophy 
or  religion,  we  are  led  toward  a  conception  of  the  nature 
of  God  in  its  relation  to  the  nature  of  man. 

Monism  [says  Picton]  may  take  as  many  forms  as  Spinoza's 
infinite  substance,  and  we  need  not  commit  ourselves  to  any  one 
of  them.  But  so  far  as  it  stands  for  a  devout  faith  that  all  things 
are  ultimately  one,  not  many — and  still  less  two — we  may  safely 
regard  it  as  the  irreversible  tendency  of  all  the  best  thought  of  the 
world.' 

With  these  words  I  find  myself  in  hearty  sympathy, 
although  far  from  agreement  with  the  conclusions 
reached  by  the  author  touching  the  Person  of  Christ  and 
the  survival  of  personality  after  death.  We  perceive  that 
God  is  not  a  Being  isolated  from  man,  but  a  Source  from 
Whose  depth  man  is  projected,  toward  Whose  depths 
man's  nature  tends  as  the  tidal  river  toward  the  parent 
sea.  Because  of  this  there  are  marvellous  intimations 
of  the  nature  of  Divinity  in  the  elemental  consciousness 
of  man.  There  is  a  sense  of  infiniteness  that  accom- 
panies the  action  of  his  mind ;  a  suggestion  of  an  ideal 
righteousness  that  plays  like  the  glittering  path  of 

» C/.    J.  All  ANSON  Picton,  The  Religion   of   the    Universe    (London, 
Macmillan,  1904),  p.  136. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION     155 

moonlight  on  the  breast  of  a  river,  across  his  moral 
conciousness.  We  see  further  that  the  greatness  and 
infiniteness  of  God  are  not  wholly  alien  to  man's  con- 
sciousness, but  related  thereto  by  the  unity  of  life.  Man 
cannot  indeed  know  God's  greatness  nor  fathom  His 
infiniteness.  He  may  sound  the  shallows  of  the  inlet, 
although  he  cannot  know  the  secrets  of  the  sea.  Yet 
between  inlet  and  sea  there  is  a  correspondence,  a  tidal 
fellowship.  So  man  knows  that  God  is  not  a  name  for 
some  gigantic  and  inconceivable  monster  of  power,  but 
for  intelligible  life  which  even  here  one  may  know  in 
part.  The  inconceivability  of  God  is  not  in  kind  but  in 
degree.  For  we  are  His  offspring  and  in  Him  we  live. 
In  language  that  seems  to  be  the  very  product  of  in- 
spiration, a  Christian  poet  has  given  utterance  to  this 
all  but  unutterable  idea: 

O  Majesty  unspeakable  and  dread ! 

Wert  Thou  less  mighty  than  Thou  art, 
Thou  wert,  O  Lord !  too  great  for  our  belief, 

Too  little  for  our  heart. 

Thy  greatness  would  seem  monstrous  by  the  side 

Of  creatures  frail  and  undivine; 
Yet  they  would  have  a  greatness  of  their  own 

Free  and  apart  from  Thine. 

Such  grandeur  were  but  a  created  thing, 

A  spectre,  terror  and  a  grief; 
Out  of  all  keeping  with  a  world  so  calm — 

Oppressing  our  belief. 

It  would  outgrow  us  from  the  face  of  things 

Still  prospering  as  we  decayed; 
And,  like  a  tyrannous  rival,  it  would  feed 

Upon  the  wrecks  it  made. 


156  BARROWS  LECTURES 

But  what  is  Infinite,  must  be  a  home, 

A  shelter  for  the  meanest  Hfe; 
Where  it  is  free  to  reach  its  greatest  growth 

Far  from  the  touch  of  strife. 

We  share  in  what  is  Infinite;  'tis  ours. 

For  we  and  it  alike  are  Thine; 
What  I  enjoy,  Great  God !  by  right  of  Thee 

Is  more  than  doubly  mine.^ 

But  the  secret  of  the  Christian  religion  cannot  be 
found  in  abstract  meditation  on  the  nature  of  being.  The 
conclusions  to  which  we  are  brought  by  that  meditation 
are,  indeed,  of  fundamental  importance ;  without  them 
we  have  no  clue  to  the  mystery  of  life;  with  them  we 
reach  the  sure  ground  held  by  many  ages  of  Eastern 
philosophy  and  affirmed  in  these  lectures — the  ground 
of  the  Divine  immanence.  But  from  this  ground  of 
Divine  immanence  we  must  still  advance.  At  the  point 
where  we  have  now  arrived  I  am  able  to  show  you  con- 
cretely how  Christianity  has  pressed  on  to  further  con- 
clusions touching  man's  life  and  God's  Life,  which  are 
of  the  highest  value  for  the  world.  Abstract  meditation 
on  the  nature  of  being  leads  to  no  practical  moral  con- 
clusions. Absolute  idealism,  that  pure  and  perfect 
monism  which  makes  God  and  man  identical  terms,  is 
relatively  a  simple  and  easy  solution  of  the  problem  of 
existence.  But  it  is  a  solution  that  derives  its  simplicity 
by  covering  rather  than  by  considering  the  most  urgent 
facts  of  consciousness.  Man  has  an  invincible  sense 
that  he  is  in  a  measure  free  to  follow  or  to  turn  from  a 
consciously  conceived  ideal. 

I  F.  W.  Faber. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION     157 

The  living,  throbbing  experience  of  the  moral  man  [to  use 
the  words  of  Professor  James  Seth  of  Halifax],  remorse  and  retri- 
bution and  reward,  all  the  grief  and  humiliation  of  his  life,  all  its 
joy  and  exaltation,  imply  a  deep  and  ineradicable  conviction  that 
his  destiny,  if  partly  shaped  for  him  by  a  power  beyond  himself, 
is  yet,  in  its  grand  outline,  in  his  own  hands,  to  make  it,  or  to  mar 
it,  as  he  will.  All  the  passion  of  his  moral  experience  gathers 
itself  up  in  the  conviction  of  his  infinite  and  eternal  superiority  to 
Nature;  she  "cannot  do  otherwise;"  he  can.^ 

The  absolute  idealist  tells  him  that  this  impression 
which  he  has  of  his  own  freedom  is  an  illusion  of  igno- 
rance, destined  to  disappear  in  the  attainment  of  higher 
knowledge;  that  his  apparent  personality  is  but  an 
aspect  of  "the  all-comprehending  Divine  Nature,  from 
the  necessity  of  which  all  things,  without  exception, 
follow;"^  and  that  the  mysterious  energy  of  self,  which, 
to  him,  seems  so  free,  is,  really,  no  free,  initiating  source 
of  conduct  but  a  mass  of  sensations  and  desires  deter- 
mined by  other  sensations  and  desires  that  have  pre- 
ceded them.  I  need  not  tell  you  what  must  be  the 
effect  upon  the  mind,  if  such  an  explanation  of  will  and 
conscience  be  accepted  as  final.  It  removes  attention 
from  the  field  of  moral  consciousness  and  concentrates 
it  upon  the  field  of  speculative  intellect,  the  former 
being  adjudged  a  mechanism  of  unreality.  It  con- 
fuses the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  by  causing  it  to 
associate  moral  distinctions  with  the  automatic  move- 
ment of  other  phenomena,  as  part  of  one  vast  shadow 

I  Cf.    throughout    an    important      William  Blackwood  &  Sons,  189 1). 

pamphlet,  Freedom  as  Ethical  Pos-  ,  c^^„     ^     -^ 

t'      t-       >  2  bETH,  op.  cit.,  p.  10. 

tulate     (Edinburgh     and     London, 


158  BARROWS  LECTURES 

play.  It  leads  us  to  think,  as  Martineau  has  phrased 
the  thought,  that 

our  belief  in  our  own  independence  arises  merely  from  a  partial 
ignorance  of  the  complex  influences  that  mould  our  decisions,  and 
that,  when  our  inward  history  is  all  unfolded  and  laid  bare,  each 
volition  will  be  found  to  have  its  place  in  a  regular  consecution  of 
phenomena  as  uniform  as  those  of  physical  nature  and  as  little 
open  to  the  entrance  of  contingency.' 

It  tempts  us  to  think  lightly  of  the  moral  imperative,  and 
its  unconditional  demand ;  to  set  good  aside  as  without 
absolute  value,  and,  abstracting  the  mind  from  ethical 
problems  and  responsibilities,  to  fix  it  on  a  colourless 
metaphysic  of  existence,  while  conduct,  divorced  from 
reason,  follows  the  devices  and  desires  of  an  impulsive 
naturalism.  The  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the 
Christian  Religion  consists  in  its  refusal  to  accept  abso- 
lute idealism  as  a  complete  solution  of  the  problem  of 
existence.  It  agrees  with  absolute  idealism,  as  these 
lectures  have  abundantly  shown,  in  its  establishment 
of  a  unifying  Source  and  Ground,  but  it  cannot  obliterate 
human  personality  by  ignoring  the  significance  of  the 
moral  consciousness.  It  does  not  undertake  to  dispel 
the  mystery  (a  mystery  that  some  have  openly  called  an 
antithesis)  in  which  we  shroud  the  problem  of  Being 
when  we  affirm  the  monistic  ground  of  the  universe  and 
also  affirm  that  God's  determining  force  is  so  far  with- 
drawn from  the  human  will  that  the  will  becomes  a  real, 
self-electing  other  toward  Himself.  Nor  does  the 
Christian  religion  in  any  degree  lose  sight  of  the  many 

I  Cf.     "Determinism    and    Free      Religion  (2d  ed.,  Oxford,  Clarendon 
Will"  in  Martineau,  A  Study  of      Press,  1889),  Vol.  II,  p.  185. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION     159 

influences,  inherited  or  otherwise  produced,  that  work 
upon  our  will  to  affect,  if  possible  to  predetermine,  its 
volitions.  But  when  allowance  has  been  made  for  these 
influences,  concerning  which  we  may  not  be  responsible, 
the  Christian  religion  sees,  grasps,  organises  the  whole 
system  of  thinking  around  the  central  fact  of  a  perma- 
nent self,  an  innermost  ego  that  is  so  far  free  as  to  be  an 
other  to  God ;  a  moral  person,  responsible  for  its  choices 
and  acts.  "There  remains,"  says  Martineau,  "the 
indelible  conviction  that  we  are  not  bound  hand  and 
foot  by  either  our  present  incentives  or  our  own  past; 
but  that,  drag  as  they  may,  a  power  remains  with  us  to 
make  a  new  beginning  along  another  path  than  theirs."' 
The  limits  of  my  time  prevent  me  from  expanding  the 
thought  upon  which  we  are  now  engaged.  But  even  a 
momentary  glance  shows  us  in  what  directions  it  must 
inevitably  lead  and  what  kinds  of  moral  needs  and 
aspirations  it  must  inevitably  suggest.  You  see  at  once 
that  the  whole  of  conduct,  the  whole  of  thought,  all  that 
we  are  and  do,  comes  into  the  moral  field  of  vision  and 
must  be  dealt  with  from  the  moral  point  of  view.  And 
what,  my  friends,  are  the  two  realities  that  appear  and 
fill  the  universe  with  their  conflicting  presences  when 
we  advance  from  the  position  of  philosophical  panthe- 
ism to  the  Christian  affirmation  of  the  personal  responsi- 
bility of  the  self  ?  They  are  evil  and  good;  moral  evil 
and  moral  good;  that  is — sin  and  righteousness.  I 
have  shown  you  the  Distinctive  Moral  Grandeur  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  when  I  have  shown  you  that  it 
exists  to  deal  with  these  two  ethical  realities,  moral  evil 

»  Op.  cit.,  p.  226,  "Psychology  of  Voluntary  Action." 


i6o  BARROWS  LECTURES 

and  moral  good.     This  is  its  reason  for  being;  its  mes- 
sage to  the  world.     It  is  a  religion  oj  character. 

It  has  often  been  said,  and  in  this  lecture  I  have,  in 
effect,  said,  that  the  limitation  in  disciples  of  pantheistic 
thought  is  relative  inability  to  realise  practical  moral 
distinctions,  to  jeel  the  difference  between  right  and 
wrong.  This  relative  inability  I  do  not  for  a  moment 
associate  with  the  persons  themselves  as  inherent  in 
their  character,  but  with  the  speculative  tendency  of 
certain  philosophical  aspects.  While  philosophical  pan- 
theism thus  may  be  said  to  work  to  the  disadvantage  of 
practical  morality,  it  is,  however,  a  superb  preparation 
for  it.  Who  is  so  prepared  to  measure  the  tragedy  of 
sin,  to  renounce  it  himself,  and  to  work  for  the  deliver- 
ance of  others,  as  he  who  has  studied  the  mystery  of 
Being  and  believes  that  the  Eternal  One  Who  differen- 
tiates His  own  self-subsisting  energy  into  the  infinite 
variety  of  finite  existences  is  still  immanent  and  living 
in  every  one  of  these  dependent  modes  of  Being,  and 
who  believes  that  it  is  because  ^^all  finite  beings  are  only 
partially  individual  and  still  remain  in  vital  union  with 
God  that  they  are  able  to  enter  into  relations  with  the 
Eternal  Being  with  Whom  their  own  existence  is  in  some 
measure  indivisibly  conjoined"?'  There  is  no  finer 
preparation  than  this  to  qualify  one  to  enter,  not  nomi- 
nally and  externally,  but  inwardly  and  profoundly,  the 
Christian  life.  It  is  the  immemorial  heritage  of  the 
East  thus  to  conceive  of  Being.  Men  of  all  Oriental 
faiths,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  have  shared  this 
heritage;  it  is  in  the  air;  it  is  in  the  fibre  of  your  souls. 

I  Cf.  Upton;  quoted  in  Lecture  III,  p.  69. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    i6l 

Therefore  I  look  for  the  East  to  produce  the  most 
spiritual  type  of  Christianity  that  has  yet  appeared  on 
earth.  The  Christianity  of  many  has  been  superficial 
and  shortlived  who  were  trained  in  the  deistic  concep- 
tions that  have,  alas,  prevailed  through  large  portions 
of  the  Western  world.  The  reason  is  obvious :  a  funda- 
mental deficiency  in  the  conception  of  God.  He  was 
conceived  as  a  Being  apart;  dwelling  by  Himself,  speak- 
ing to  man  externally  by  means  of  a  law;  much  as  the 
state  speaks  to  its  citizens  by  means  of  laws.  Obedi- 
ence was  an  outgoing  homage  to  an  external  Divinity; 
the  forms  of  the  Church  were  the  expressions  of  that 
obedience;  righteousness  tended  to  become  identified 
with  regularity  in  making  those  expressions,  sin  with 
carelessness  in  their  fulfilment.  It  is  no  surprise  to 
find  a  religion  of  externalism  built  upon  the  foundation 
of  an  external  God,  and  a  divided,  shallow,  inconsistent 
life  of  thought  and  conduct  produced  by  a  deficient 
theory  of  self,  as  a  creature  having  by  nature  no  affinity 
with  God  and  only  joined  to  Him  through  a  process 
fixed  by  law^  and  consummated  by  sacraments.  I  speak 
with  sadness  of  this  temperamental  tendency  of  the 
West  to  externalise  God  and  believe  in  a  self  wholly 
severed  from  His  Essence,  and  needing  the  authority  of 
churches  and  priests  to  bring  it  in  relation  thereto.  How 
this  has  hindered  the  inward  development  of  the  West- 
em  religious  consciousness  and  fostered  the  overgrowth 
of  its  ecclesiasticism !  Few  and  exceptional  for  many 
centuries  were  the  mystics  of  the  West,  the  souls  indif- 
ferent to  forms  and  orders,  whose  interest  in  religion  was 
"  to  realise,  in  thought  and  feeling,  the  immanence  of  the 


i62  BARROWS  LECTURES 

temporal  in  the  eternal  and  of  the  eternal  in  the  tem- 
poral,'" that  is,  to  know  their  abiding  in  the  Living  God 
and  the  abiding  of  the  Living  God  in  them.  Wondrous 
is  the  development  of  the  mystical  element  in  Western 
Christianity  since  the  idealism  of  the  East  began,  like  a 
sunrise,  to  temper  the  gloom  of  our  austere  ecclesias- 
ticism.  With  that  growth  of  the  mystical  sense,  the 
sense  of  God's  oneness  with  man,  there  is  coming  in  the 
West  as  there  must  ever  come,  when  true  mysticism  is 
also  truly  Christian,  an  intensified  consciousness  of  sin, 
not  as  an  outward  breach  of  ceremonial  command- 
ments but  as  an  inward  rending  of  the  unity  of  life, 
as  a  revolt  of  the  will  from  its  Source  and  Ground,  as 
disloyalty  of  self -consciousness  to  an  ideal  of  holy  love 
engendered  within  us  by  the  indwelling  Essence  of  the 
Eternal,  as  the  canker  that  is  eating  out  the  heart  of  the 
individual,  and  the  heart  of  the  world.  The  religion 
of  character,  inwardly  apprehended,  gives  to  the  soul  an 
experience  of  moral  suffering  not  produced  by  external 
appeals,  threatenings,  or  laws.  It  is  the  consequence  of 
inward  knowledge  of  the  mystery  of  our  own  being: 
God  in  us,  the  Immanent  Eternal  Spring  of  conscious- 
ness, we  in  Him  as  the  Source  and  Ground  of  all  that  we 
are,  in  Whose  depths  our  sub-conscious  life  loses  itself, 
as  the  river  in  the  sea.  It  is  a  needed  suffering,  to  bring 
us  to  ethical  reality;  to  humiliate  the  complacent  pride 
of  exterior  religiousness;  to  give  us,  through  the  death 
of  the  superficial  self,  access  to  a  deeper  life.  It  consists 
in  knowing  at  last  what  is  the  offence,  the  shame,  the 
bitterness  of  sin.     "Against  Thee,  Thee  only,  have  I 

I  Inge,  Christian  Mysticism,  p.  5;  quoted  in  Lecture  II,  p.  35. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    163 

sinned,  and  done  that  which  is  evil  in  Thy  sight."' 
But  through  this  experience  comes  the  unifying  of  life. 
Its  divided  selfhood  is  healed.  Our  mystical  con- 
sciousness of  God  becomes  at  length  a  v^itness  not  of 
anguish  and  humiliation,  but  of  peace.  Aspiration 
comes  to  us.  The  sense  of  the  absoluteness  of  good 
and  of  its  value  for  us  is  established  with  power.  The 
ethical  imperative  speaks  with  command  and  is  an- 
swered with  joy.  We  want  to  know  and  to  attain  the 
best.  The  power  to  discern  between  lower  and  higher 
affections  asserts  itself.  The  unified  soul,  disburdened 
of  its  weights  and  hindrances,  seeks  the  things  that  are 
above.  Clear-eyed,  sensitive  to  righteousness,  it  sepa- 
rates the  less  from  the  greater,  rising  ever  in  thought 
toward  a  purer  atmosphere. 

At  length  ethical  aspiration  can  rise  no  higher.  It 
comes  to  that  which,  for  it,  is  supreme.  That  supreme 
is  holy  love.  Its  beauty  is  the  beauty  of  holiness,  its 
passion  is  the  passion  of  renunciation.  Obedience  to 
this  love  means  abolition  of  selfishness,  dethroning  of 
pride,  patience  toward  the  weak,  compassion  toward  the 
erring,  sympathy  for  the  ignorant,  tenderness  for  the  sor- 
rowing, participation  in  the  universal  life,  reverence  for 
all  men,  faith  in  humanity.^  The  unified  soul  discerns 
in  holy  love  the  highest  ideal  of  moral  consciousness. 
It  conceives  that  this  may  be  the  inmost  character  of 
God.  Therefore  to  this  it  consecrates  itself,  and  lives 
henceforth  as  one  born  again.  My  brethren,  in  this 
delineation  of  the  ethical  consciousness  in  a  Christian 
life,  I  have  opened  to  you  my  heart.     How  much  of 

I  Ps.  51 :4.  *  C/.  Lecture  IV,  p.  131. 


i64  BARROWS  LECTURES 

what  I  have  said  is  autobiography,  how  much  is  the 
record  of  experiences  that  I  have  been  privileged  to 
observe  in  others,  need  not  here  be  said.  It  is  enough 
that  every  word  of  this  is  true.  And  being  true,  it 
suggests  a  question,  which  is,  for  Christianity,  the 
question  of  questions.  I  shall  ask  this  question  and 
give  answer  to  it  as  I  close.  If  the  distinction  of  the 
Christian  religion  be  that  it  is  a  religion  of  character, 
what  answer  does  it  give  to  the  highest  moral  aspirations 
of  our  souls?  This,  I  affirm,  is  the  question  of  ques- 
tions. Our  capacities  reach  out  into  the  universe, 
demanding  appropriate  and  sufficient  answers.  The 
hand,  with  its  skill  and  strength,  demands  the  fabric  of 
a  material  world  to  deal  with,  and  finds  it  waiting  to 
be  used.  The  power  of  aesthetic  judgment  calls  for 
beauty  in  all  realms  of  being,  and  finds  it  in  nature,  in 
art,  in  letters.  The  vital  consciousness  that  is  in  us,  a 
thrilling  sense  of  unconquerable  life,  demands  an  answer- 
ing assurance,  and  finds  it  in  the  infinitude  of  God. 
The  moral  imperative  in  the  soul,  the  perception  of  the 
value  of  goodness,  the  power  of  ethical  aspiration,  the 
tentative  sense  of  having  reached  the  best  in  reaching 
the  ideal  of  holy  love,  is  the  involuntary  cry,  not  of  con- 
sciousness alone,  but  of  our  sub-conscious  life,  for  some 
authoritative  answer  coming  from  the  unknowable 
depths  of  God  into  the  range  of  our  knowledge,  to  con- 
firm that  best,  to  identify  it  with  Absolute  Reality. 
What  answer  does  the  religion  of  character  give  to  this 
involuntary  cry  of  the  soul  ?  Its  answer  is  the  fact  of 
Jesus  Christ.  My  interest  in  setting  this  fact  before 
you  here  is  that  of  one  who  believes  profoundly  and 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    165 

unreservedly  in  his  subject.  My  belief  is  a  passionate 
yet  reasoned  conviction.  For  me,  the  assurance  that  the 
historic  Christ  is  the  Divine  answer  to  the  soul's  supreme 
moral  aspiration  is  as  conclusive  as  the  assurance  of  my 
own  moral  personality.  My  interest  in  bringing  the  fact 
of  Christ  to  your  attention  in  this  form  is  furthermore 
the  interest  of  one  who  views  with  alarm  and  sorrow 
a  characteristic  tendency  in  modern  Western  criticism 
to  discard  the  witness  concerning  Christ  given  by 
the  philosophical  culture  of  the  first  and  second  cen- 
turies (a  Greek  culture  with  Oriental  affinities  and 
insights)  and  to  measure  Him,  after  the  manner  of 
Western  externalism,  by  purely  naturalistic  methods 
remote  from  His  time.  My  interest,  finally,  is  that  of 
one  who  looks  to  the  sublime  elements  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness  as  the  source  of  power  that  can  counter- 
act this  enfeebled  apprehension  of  the  fact  of  Christ,  and 
give  back  to  the  world  the  fervour,  depth,  and  sacred- 
ness  of  Apostolic  thought  and  feeling.  The  stupendous 
power  of  Christ,  discerned  by  those  philosophic  minds, 
lifted  them  to  conceptions  of  Divine  Life  and  fellowship 
fast  fading  out  from  the  world's  consciousness  in  the 
glare  and  noise  of  Western  progress.  Augustine  said  of 
St.  John:  "Such  men  dwelt  apart  in  loneliness  like  that 
of  the  great  mountains,  whose  loftiness  is  measured  not 
by  comparison  nor  yet  by  imagination  but  by  the  flood 
of  blessing  which  they  pour  down  on  the  little  hills  and 
plains  below.'"  Hidden  in  India  and  in  the  Farther 
East,  there  are,  I  believe,  such  potential  apostles  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  men  not  alien  to  the  philosophy  that 

I  Quoted  by  Picton,  Mystery  of  Matter,  p.  265. 


i66  BARROWS  LECTURES 

governed  St.  John  and  some  of  his  successors;  accus- 
tomed to  unworldly  contemplation  of  God ;  unmoved  by 
the  audacious  self-possession  of  modern  irreverence. 
I  look  for  such  to  emerge  at  the  bidding  of  the  Spirit,  to 
address  their  minds  to  the  fact  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
lay,  not  the  East  only,  but  the  world,  under  obligation 
by  restoring  to  the  hungering,  groping,  fettered  souls  of 
men  their  birthright  and  their  emancipation. 

The  fact  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  threefold  fact.  To 
grasp  it  in  its  entirety,  one  must  keep  in  view  and  con- 
sider as  aspects  of  one  truth,  the  life  purpose  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  shown  historically  in  His  Visible  Ministry, 
the  continuous  power  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Christian 
Consciousness,  and  the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
Revelation  of  the  Heart  of  God.  These  aspects  acted 
and  reacted  in  the  philosophic  consciousness  of  the  first 
and  second  centuries,  as  the  spiritual  eyesight  became 
adjusted  to  the  new  Light  that  had  come  into  the  world. 
We  have  observed  how  even  the  common  happenings  of 
our  lives,  many  times,  are  not  apprehended  in  their  full 
meaning  in  the  hour  of  their  occurrence  and  of  their 
sensible  perception.  Not  until  afterward  does  the  mind 
have  leisure  to  bring  to  bear  its  reflective  powers,  and 
grasp  the  real  value  of  what  has  taken  place.  A  friend 
crosses  our  path,  tarries  a  moment  in  eager  conversa- 
tion, and  is  gone.  In  the  brief  moment  of  his  tarrying 
we  are  absorbed  in  perceiving  the  outward  data  of  his 
presence.  We  look  in  his  face,  hear  his  voice,  touch  his 
hand,  listen  to  his  words,  bid  him  good-bye.  In  after 
hours,  memory,  collecting  these  perceptual  impressions, 
brings  them  to  reason,  which  ponders  and  interprets. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION     167 

We  understand  now  the  unwonted  mark  of  joy  or  sor- 
row on  his  face,  we  discern  the  deeper  meaning  in  his 
words,  we  feel,  as  we  felt  not  at  the  moment,  the  great 
peace  or  conflict  that  was  in  his  soul.  Our  reflective 
consciousness  gives  the  truer  record  of  the  fact.  So 
went  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  for  a  few  short  years,  in  and  out 
before  men.  By  many  His  presence  was  not  noticed, 
by  a  few  it  was  admired  and  loved,  by  none  was  it  under- 
stood completely  until  all  was  over :  the  gracious  words, 
the  deeds  of  sacrificial  tenderness,  the  stainless,  shadow- 
less living,  the  loneliness,  the  secret  affinities  of  power, 
the  burden  of  sins  not  His  own,  the  patient  anguish,  the 
words  from  the  Cross,  the  death  silence,  the  awaking, 
the  coming  forth,  the  world-wide  commandment:  ^^Go 
ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole 
creation.'"  Then  the  reflective  powers  of  their  minds 
were  roused  and  their  hearts  began  to  burn  within  them. 
They  recalled  His  words  and  the  spirit  of  His  Life. 
They  comprehended  His  purpose  and  perceived  that  it 
was  universal.  They  knew  that  He  was  a  prophet,  but 
not  like  any  other  prophet,  for  in  Him  wisdom  found  its 
source.  They  knew  that  He  was  great,  but  not  with  the 
mere  greatness  of  men,  for  men  centre  their  greatness 
in  themselves,  and  His  seemed  to  go  forth  from  Himself 
and  be  lost  in  sacrifice,  upon  the  world. 

It  is  confessedly  difficult  [says  one]  for  any  who  feel  their  hearts 
warm  toward  the  spiritual  glory  of  Christ,  to  put  into  words  the 
impression  He  makes  upon  them.  For  most  of  the  notes  of  human 
greatness  seem  weak,  inapplicable,  even  incongruous  when  attrib- 
uted to  Him.     For  instance,  individuality,  which  is  so  striking  a 

I  Mark  16:15. 


l68  BARROWS  LECTURES 

characteristic  of  all  rightful  kings  of  men,-  seems  very  inapt  in  a 
description  of  the  Person  of  Christ.  That  His  character  and  His 
powers  do,  on  any  interpretation,  stand  alone  in  world-wide  history, 
every  one  must  feel.  But  the  loneliness  is  not  that  of  individuality. 
For  this  word  is  suggestive  of  some  intense,  self-centred  fire.  And 
it  is  rather  the  absence  of  this  that  makes  the  greatness  of  Christ 
so  sacred.^ 

They  recalled  the  philosophic  ideals  of  a  Wisdom,  an 
intelligible  Word,  coming  out  from  the  abyss  of  the 
Unknowable  to  interpret  the  secrets  of  the  Divine  intel- 
ligence, to  be  a  Mediator  between  the  Eternal  and  the 
ephemeral,  the  Sum  of  the  thoughts  of  God,  the  Idea  of 
Ideas.  And  as  these  recollections  of  philosophical  aspi- 
ration came  to  them  and  set  their  hearts  on  fire  they 
perceived  that  they  were  divinely  kindled,  as  the  burn- 
ing glass  borrows  its  power  of  kindling  from  the  sun.  * 
Through  distant  Oriental  sources  they  had  entered  and 
filled  the  Greek  consciousness;  to  find,  as  it  seemed, 
their  correction  and  completion  in  Christ.  Therefore 
these  majestic  souls,  on  whom  Christ's  power  had  fallen, 
came  through  years  of  reflective  experience  to  discern 
His  meaning  and  His  nature.  For  them  He  was  the 
loving  Spirit  of  the  Lord  that  filleth  all  the  earth,  the 
Brightness  of  the  everlasting  Light,  the  unspotted  Mir- 
ror of  the  Power  of  God,  the  Image  of  his  Goodness,  the 
Prophet  of  the  Most  High,  the  Mediator,  the  Heavenly 
Man,  representing  before  the  eyes  of  God  the  whole 
family  upon  earth.  ^     He  was  the  Word  that  was  in  the 

1  Cf.    PiCTON,    Christian   Panthe-  3  In  this  account  of    Alexandrian 
ism,  p.  43.  Christology  I  have  been  much  helped 

2  Clement  of  Alexandria,  Strom.,  by    Canon    Bigg,    Christian    Pla- 
VI,  17,  19.  tonists  of  Alexandria. 


MORAL  GRANDEUR  OF  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION    169 

beginning  with  God,  that  came  from  the  Unknowable 
into  the  knowable,  as  a  Son  from  a  Father,  that  was 
made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  men,  that  men  might  be- 
hold His  glory,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  It  was  a 
wondrous  interpretation  of  a  wondrous  fact;  an  inter- 
pretation rich  with  the  mystical  spirit  of  the  Oriental 
Consciousness.  Time  only  could  show  whether  it  was 
an  advance  upon  pantheism  or  a  restatement  of  it  in 
another  form.  It  might  grow  away  from  the  historical 
and  the  ethical,  and,  interested  only  in  the  metaphysical, 
might  pass  into  the  upper  air  of  theory,  and  be  lost  in  a 
maze  of  speculative  deductions.  After  two  thousand 
years  of  testing  in  the  crucible  of  experience,  the  Chris- 
tian religion  comes  to  us  to-day  a  religion  of  character 
founded  in  the  dignity  of  Christ  as  the  Moral  Revelation 
of  God,  the  answer  to  the  highest  aspiration  of  man's 
soul.  Like  gold  thrice  refined,  both  elements,  the  his- 
torical and  the  mystical,  have  been  subject  to  every  test 
that  the  wisdom,  pride,  or  sin  of  man  can  apply;  and 
both  remain  to-day.  By  hatred  and  love,  by  evil  report 
and  good  report,  by  prosperity  and  adversity,  by  learning 
and  culture,  by  ignorance  and  superstition,  by  science, 
philosophy,  and  ethics,  have  these  elements  been  tested 
until  the  essential  truth  of  the  historical  and  the  mystical 
in  the  Christian  religion  have  been  completely  proven, 
and  have  taken  their  place  among  the  things  that  cannot 
be  shaken.  The  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ  answers 
and  fulfils  the  highest  possible  aspiration  in  the  moral 
consciousness  of  humanity.  We  cannot  feel  the  abso- 
lute value  of  good  nor  recognise  its  authority  in  higher 
senses  than  appear  in  Christ.     From  this  we  conclude 


I70  BARROWS  LECTURES 

that  He  is  the  outspeaking  Voice  from  the  shoreless, 
soundless  depths  of  Infinite  Being,  confirming  goodness 
as  the  inner  Essence  of  the  Heart  of  God.  And  this 
Christ  we  know  immediately  in  our  souls.  All  that  He 
is  historically  in  and  for  the  life  of  the  world.  He  is  per- 
sonally in  and  for  each  one  of  us  who  immediately  and 
mystically  know  Him,  and,  knowing  Him,  know  God  in 
Him.  But  the  world,  blinded  by  material  objects  and 
hardened  by  self-centred  motives,  needs  a  fresh  inter- 
pretation of  Christ  from  some  human  source  where 
faith  in  the  Invisible  is  still  the  great  reality,  and  interest 
in  the  ultimate  problems  of  the  soul,  still  an  unspent 
river  of  delight.  In  the  day  when  the  Oriental  Con- 
sciousness perceives  the  nature  of  this  soul-chastening, 
soul-redeeming,  soul-unifying  Christ  of  God,  and  gives 
its  sublime  powers  to  the  religion  of  character  as,  since 
the  dawn  of  history,  it  has  given  them  to  the  religion  of 
Being,  there  shall  come  back  upon  all  nations,  from  the 
ancestral  home  of  the  world's  religious  consciousness,  a 
recovery  of  the  essence  that  must  live  beneath  the  form, 
of  the  spirit  that  must  speak  through  the  letter,  of  the 
morality  of  holy  love  that  must  purge  and  refashion  the 
morality  of  custom  and  law,  by  setting  right  above  might, 
and  ministrations  of  brotherhood  above  aggressions  of 
power. 


LECTURE  SIX 

THE  MINISTRY  OF  THE  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUS- 
NESS  IN  A  WORLD-WIDE  KINGDOM 
OF  CHRIST 

In  closing  the  previous  lecture,  upon  the  Distinctive 
Moral  Grandeur  of  the  Christian  Religion,  I  made  use 
of  the  following  words: 

In  the  day  when  the  Oriental  Consciousness  perceives  the 
nature  of  this  soul-chastening,  soul-redeeming,  soul-unifying 
Christ  of  God  and  gives  its  sublime  powers  to  the  religion  of  char- 
acter, as,  since  the  dawn  of  history,  it  has  given  them  to  the 
religion  of  Being,  there  shall  come  back  upon  all  nations,  from  the 
ancestral  home  of  the  world's  religious  consciousness,  a  recovery 
of  the  essence  that  must  live  beneath  the  form,  of  the  spirit  that 
must  speak  through  the  letter,  of  the  morality  of  holy  love  that 
must  purge  and  refashion  the  morality  of  custom  and  law,  by  set- 
ting right  above  might,  and  ministrations  of  brotherhood  above 
aggressions  of  power. 

It  is  in  the  spirit  of  these  words,  and  for  the  better 
understanding  of  their  meaning,  that  I  enter  upon  the 
sixth  and  last  lecture  of  this  course,  taking  for  my  theme 
^'The  Ministry  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  in  a 
World-wide  Kingdom  of  Christ."  I  have  not  at  any- 
time concealed  or  attempted  to  conceal  my  ultimate 
desire  in  the  delivery  of  these  lectures.  It  has  been 
apparent  to  all  that  have  heard  them  that  my  heart  is 
with  the  East  in  respect,  admiration,  and  love.  It  has 
also  appeared  that  my  belief  is  unbounded  in  the  Divine 
source  and  world-wide  significance  of  the  Christian 

171 


172  BARROWS  LECTURES 

religion  as  a  religion  of  character.  I  have  repeatedly 
expressed  my  dissatisfaction  with  some  aspects  of 
religious  thinking  in  the  A^'estem  world  and  my  fear 
that  tendencies  are  at  work  w^hich,  unless  modified  by 
powerful  counter-influences,  may  diffuse,  at  all  events 
for  a  time,  an  enfeebled  and  superficial  estimate  of 
some  of  the  deeper  truths  and  values  of  the  Christian 
religion.  Such  a  result,  even  if  temporar)^  would  be 
a  calamity  not  for  the  West  alone,  but  for  the  world. 
It  would  feed  the  spirit  of  aggression,  authority,  insti- 
tutional pride,  extemalism,  and  the  consuming  love 
of  pleasure.  These  things  flourish  in  the  soil  of  the 
natural  heart,  and  are  not  subdued  by  theoretical  ethics, 
but  only  by  the  growth  of  spiritual  reverence  and  holy 
love  bom  of  inward  communion  with  God.  The  pride 
of  external  authority  is  never  merely  a  local  ill.  It 
becomes  a  devouring  passion,  not  only  thinking  more 
and  more  of  seK,  but  less  and  less  of  others.  It  takes 
to  itself  rights  of  conquest  and  persuades  itself  that 
those  rights  are  Di\ine.  It  binds  on  men's  shoulders 
burdens  grievous  to  be  borne,  and  claims,  in  the  act,  to 
be  doing  God  service.  This  as  history  shows  becomes 
a  far-spreading  calamity.  The  serious  fact  in  those 
aspects  of  religious  thinking  to  which  I  have  alluded 
with  dissatisfaction,  is  that  the  deeper  truths  and  values 
of  the  Christian  reKgion  which  modem  civilisation  tends 
to  depreciate  are  those  which  have  the  greatest  power 
to  subdue  worldly  pride,  to  correct  cruel  and  intolerant 
ambition,  to  restrain  worship  of  visible  and  sensuous 
ends,  to  teach  men  and  nations  gentleness,  patience, 
sympathy,  self-sacrifice.     These  truths  and  values  lie 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      173 

chiefly  in  the  mystical  reahn.  They  have  to  do  with 
God's  abiding  in  the  soul  and  the  soul's  abiding  in 
God,  with  knowledge  as  a  religious  experience,  imme- 
diate, self-attesting.  They  have  to  do  with  the  Universal 
Life,  the  substance  underlying  and  unifying  all  individu- 
alities, making  all  men  members  one  of  another.  They 
have  to  do,  in  particular,  with  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  background  of  His  ethical  authority;  that 
He  is,  not  an  occasional  teacher  who  arose,  testified, 
and  departed;  but  the  Eternal  Answer  which  has  come 
forth  from  imknowable  depths  of  the  Infinite,  to  con- 
firm the  soul's  highest  moral  ideal,  to  disclose  the  h(Aj 
love  which  is  the  central  principle  in  the  Heart  of  God, 
to  interpret  that  love  by  sacrifice. 

The  argument  that  I  shall  attempt  to  present  in  this, 
my  last  lecture,  grows  out  of  the  above-moitiooed 
facts.  The  dominating  civilisations  of  the  world,  with 
their  fierce  cry  of  progress,  which  is  like  the  shout  of 
a  cavalry  charge,  turn  from,  if  they  do  not  trample  on, 
essential  qualities  of  the  Christian  religion.  Tenacious 
of  forms,  they  become,  throu^  hardness  of  heart, 
unable  to  retain  the  spirit  of  that  religicm.  Reverencing 
the  Cross  as  a  symbol,  they  are  prevented,  by  ambition, 
from  conforming  to  the  mind  of  the  Crucified.  This, 
as  I  shall  show  you,  is  not  a  situation  <rf  merely  local 
importance.  It  is  a  calamity,  progressively  affecting 
the  whole  world;  inasnmch  as  the  ^irit  of  the  Christian 
religion,  the  mind*  of  Qirist,  ccmtains  in  princq^  the 
redress  of  all  grievances  fringing  from  injustice,  inhu- 
manity, and  imscrupulous  ambition.  It  is  a  calamity 
already  felt  by  the  East  and  likely  to  be  felt  moie  keoity. 


174  BARROWS  LECTURES 

according  to  the  caprice  or  passion  of  these  civilisations. 
It  is  a  calamity  that  cannot  be  averted  by  the  appeal 
to  external  force,  answering  blow  with  blow;  for  its 
cause  is  not  physical  but  spiritual.  The  dominating 
civilisations  of  the  twentieth  century  are  what  they  are, 
not  in  one  country  alone,  but  in  all  countries,  selfish, 
aggressive,  violent,  in  matters  pertaining  to  world- 
politics  and  race  relations,  because  the  mind  of  men  is 
set  on  outward  ends  and  the  faculty  of  inward  vision 
fails  through  disuse.  The  prestige  of  nations,  like  a 
glare  of  insufferable  light,  blinds  the  eye  of  the  soul. 
Sins  of  injustice,  tyrannous  impositions  of  physical 
power  are  condoned  at  the  bar  of  modern  civilisation 
by  an  ethical  sense  dulled  by  unfamiliarity  with  the 
larger  truths  of  the  Spirit.  That  this  tendency  cannot 
run  unchecked  without  plunging  the  world  in  fresh 
sorrows,  I  am  certain.  That  it  may  be  checked  by 
the  influx  of  some  powerful  counter-sentiment,  I  am 
sure.  That  that  check  is  to  be  given  by  the  East,  I 
believe.  But  in  what  way?  I  cannot  think  that  the 
East  would  be  quite  true  to  its  best  tradition,  nor  that 
it  would  rise  quite  to  its  own  ideal,  if  it  sought  to  rebuke 
and  check  these  excesses  by  corresponding  polities  of 
violence  and  retaliation.  Not  that  courage,  skill,  or 
power  are  lacking  to  qualify  the  East  in  rendering  meas- 
ure for  measure,  a  full  return  in  kind  for  all  that  she  has 
received.  The  brilliant  and  self-contained  Empire  of 
Japan  has  given  expression  to  that  courage,  skill,  and 
power  in  a  manner  that  convincingly  suggests  the  ability 
of  the  East  to  meet  the  West  on  its  own  terms,  to  fight 
it  with  its  own  weapons.     The  salutary  effect  of  that 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       175 

demonstration  appears  in  many  ways.  Yet  I  cannot  con- 
ceive that  it  points  to  a  final  solution  of  contemporary 
difficulties,  nor  that  it  represents  the  highest  ministry 
open  to  the  East  on  behalf  of  the  world.  The  terrible 
sword  of  the  East,  smiting  in  righteous  retribution, 
might  palliate  but  could  not  remove  the  present  diffi- 
culty. For  that  difficulty  is  spiritual  and  may  not  be 
reached  by  the  thrust  of  carnal  weapons.  The  core  of  the 
difficulty  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  dominating  civilisations, 
which  have  gained  outwardly,  but  lost  inwardly.  They 
have  gained  in  knowledge  of  the  constitution  and  use 
of  matter,  in  application  of  force,  in  theories  of  gov- 
ernment, social  order,  liberty,  individual  rights  and 
destinies.  They  have  lost  in  depth  of  God-conscious- 
ness whereby  alone  all  theories  are  saved  from  narrow 
interpretation  and  formal  use.  They  have  gained  in 
outlook,  but  lost  in  vision.  They  have  gained  in  ethical 
ideal,  but  lost  in  mystical  apprehension  of  the  Source 
and  Ground  of  that  ideal.  The  present  situation  calls, 
not  for  an  answer  of  wrath,  but  for  an  answer  of  wisdom. 
It  needs  to  be  dealt  with,  not  by  an  antagonist,  but  by 
an  enlightener.  It  is  a  case  not  for  the  warrior  so  much 
as  for  the  prophet.  The  tension  now  upon  the  world 
will  not  yield  to  force.  If  relaxed  for  the  moment  at 
one  point  it  tightens  at  another.  It  results  from  the 
power  of  traditional  ideas  to  control  the  imagination, 
and  necessitate  the  policy,  of  governments.  Associa- 
tion of  national  glory  with  military  achievement ;  tend- 
ency of  power  toward  oppression;  territorial  jealousy, 
exploiting  of  weakness  by  strength;  increase  of  armed 
force;   diplomatic  belligerency,  like  perpetual  mutter- 


176  BARROWS  LECTURES 

ings  of  distant  thunder,  seem  to  predetermine  the  spirit 
of  the  dominating  civilisations  of  the  world.  The 
internal  life  of  these  nations  is  not  more  satisfactory 
at  the  present  time  than  their  external  relations.  Pov- 
erty is  not  sensibly  alleviated.  Labour  troubles  are 
not  less,  but  more,  acute,  and  accompanied  with  more 
ominous  demonstrations.  Certain  social  vices  are 
believed  to  be  increasing.  A  sinister  type  of  practical 
atheism  extends  its  influence.  In  the  meantime  the 
ideals  of  thoughtful  men  are  more  lofty  than  ever  before. 
Counsels  of  perfection  abound.  The  Fatherhood  of 
God  is  cherished  as  an  approximate  expression  of  His 
Nature.  The  universal  brotherhood  of  man  is  a  watch- 
word of  social  theory.  Abhorrence  of  war  professes 
to  increase  on  the  ground  that  war  is  a  survival  from 
lower  civilisation  and  should  be  displaced  by  arbitration. 
Sympathy  with  suffering  finds  expression  in  a  measure 
which,  upon  occasion,  becomes  sublime.  There  is 
found  a  strange  blending  of  evil  and  good.  Light  is  in 
the  world  but  the  darkness  comprehends  it  not.  Good 
holds  evil  somewhat  in  check.  Evil  keeps  good  from 
triumphant  advance.  The  outcome  is  negative.  It 
is  like  the  grappling  of  well-matched  wrestlers :  a  long 
struggle  on  the  same  ground.  It  is  impossible  to  look 
upon  this  long-drawn  battle  with  indifference,  for  our 
own  interests,  and  those  of  all  the  world,  are  involved. 
No  interests  are  more  surely  or  deeply  involved  in  the 
pending  issues  than  those  of  the  East;  for  as  go  the 
dominant  civilisations,  so  goes  the  world.  If  the  West- 
em  nations  are  to  become  more  possessed  of  the  pride 
of  militarism,  more  aggressive  and  belligerent,  more 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       177 

grasping  and  audacious,  it  means  for  the  East  more 
sorrow,  injustice,  and  deprivation  of  rights.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  some  new  influence  is  to  be  brought 
that  shall  break  the  present  deadlock  between  good 
and  evil,  by  liberating  fresh  spiritual  forces  to  soften 
the  hearts  and  uplift  the  purposes  of  men,  the  first  to 
feel  the  beneficence  of  the  new  order  will  be  the  East. 

Two  questions  at  once  present  themselves:  Of 
what  nature  should  this  influence  be,  and  from  whence 
may  it  come?  As  to  its  nature  one  may  speak  with 
confidence.  The  influence  most  sorely  needed  by 
modern  civilisation,  to  soften  its  asperities,  correct  its 
abuses,  and  lift  its  aims,  is  not  more  of  ethical  idealism, 
but  more  of  the  spirit  of  religion,  which  means  more 
consciousness  of  the  indwelling  Life  of  God.  Ethical 
idealism  is  the  sense  of  knowing  what  ought  to  be. 
The  spirit  of  religion  is  the  power  to  live  up  to  that 
knowledge.  There  is  no  lack  of  the  first,  there  is  a 
dearth  of  the  last.  Never  was  there  an  age  when  thought 
soared  higher  in  the  realm  of  ethical  theory,  or  analysed 
more  acutely  the  moral  forces.  Never  was  the  desire 
more  compelling  for  a  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  a 
kingdom  of  righteousness,  peace,  and  social  love.  The 
Western  world  has  its  prophets  of  the  ideal,  and  their 
sight  is  clear,  even  as  their  hearts  are  pure  and  warm 
with  love.  But  ideals,  however  great  and  just,  cannot 
produce  results  in  a  civilisation  that  lacks  the  spirit 
of  religion,  even  as  palm  trees  cannot  come  to  their 
fruitage  in  an  atmosphere  untempered  by  tropical 
warmth.  In  this  I  state  the  exact  point  of  deficiency 
in   the   modern   world.    The   forms,    doctrines,    and 


178  BARROWS  LECTURES 

institutions  of  the  Christian  religion  cover  the  West 
and,  to  some  extent,  enter  the  East.  Individual  lives 
and  groups  of  lives  are  to  be  found  in  relative  abundance 
possessing  the  inward  spirit  of  that  religion,  the  spirit 
of  holy  and  sacrificial  love,  formed  by  enlightened 
knowledge  of  God.  But  these  individuals  and  groups 
are  not  strong  enough  to  affect  race  tendencies  and 
instincts  that  determine  the  temper  of  Western  civilisa- 
tion. I  shall  speak  presently  of  those  tendencies. 
Great  in  themselves  and  invaluable  for  the  advance  of 
the  world,  they  run  toward  external  issues,  formal 
results,  and  brilliant  ideals.  They  lack  subjectivity, 
the  power  of  concentration  upon  the  Unseen,  the  spirit 
of  religion.  Hence  Christianity,  accepted  and  inter- 
preted only  by  the  West,  moves  away  from  the  burn- 
ing altars  of  its  earlier  and  semi-Oriental  interpreters, 
and  becomes  cold,  formal,  unspiritual.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise  until  there  is  the  influx  of  some  powerful 
counter-sentiment,  represented  not  by  individual  but 
racial  gifts  and  qualities,  a  sentiment  of  gentleness,  of 
reverence ;  of  exalting  thought  above  action,  of  temper- 
ing impetuosity  with  meditation.  Such  a  sentiment 
is  foreign  to  Western  civilisation  as  a  whole.  It  cannot 
be  expected  to  develop  within  it.  It  must  come  from 
some  other  source.  Martineau  in  his  Study  0}  Religion 
speaks  of  the  word  "pantheism"  as  seeming  "to  mark 
a  temperament  more  than  a  system;"  and  of  pantheistic 
systems  of  philosophy  he  says  "the  tendency  which 
gives  rise  to  them  is  so  foreign  to  our  prevailing  English 
genius,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  awaken  much  sympathy 
with  it,  or  to  give  a  clear  impression  of  the  theory  it  has 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       179 

created."'  This  naive  statement  is  precisely  true. 
The  West  has  little  patience  with  the  pantheistic  tem- 
perament. Its  natural  interests  are  scientific  and 
historical.  Its  treasure  is  the  world;  and  where  its 
treasure  is,  there  is  its  heart  also.  As  the  West,  in  the 
course  of  time,  has  conformed  its  civilisation  to  these 
interests,  it  has  progressively  conformed  its  interpreta- 
tion of  Christianity  to  the  same  interests,  scientific  and 
historical.  This  is  good  in  outward  result,  but  deficient 
in  inward  spirit,  and,  because  thus  deficient,  harmful. 
The  counter-sentiment  of  gentleness,  of  reverence,  of 
exalting  thought  above  action,  of  tempering  impetuosity 
with  meditation  belongs  to  the  East.  To  her  God  has 
given  the  spirit  of  religion  more  than  the  form.  The 
religious  qualities  of  the  Eastern  mind  lend  themselves 
to  interpretation  more  than  to  observation.  Her  calm, 
reflective  gaze  ignores  the  transitory  and  is  lost  in  con- 
templation of  the  Eternal.  It  is  to  that  spirit  that  I 
appeal,  in  this  closing  lecture.  I  seek  to  call  it  forth 
from  its  traditional  seclusion;  to  enlist  it  in  the  service 
of  mankind.  Not  by  polities  of  violence  and  retaliation 
shall  the  East  correct  the  excesses  of  selfishness  and 
injustice  that  now  appear  in  the  dominating  civilisations 
of  the  world.  Blow  answering  blow  but  hardens  hearts 
already  hard  and  infuriates  national  ambitions  already 
over-stimulated.  There  is  a  better  way.  I  would  see 
the  East  rise  to  her  glorious  height  and  face  the  modern 
world,  her  eyes  not  blazing  with  revenge  but  beaming 
with  holy  love;  her  hand  not  grasping  the  sword,  but 
opening  the  Christian  Scripture,  too  little  understood 

I  Vol.  II,  p.  133  (Oxford,  1889). 


i8o  BARROWS  LECTURES 

by  those  who  have  had  it  longest;  her  voice  not  raised 
in  wrath  but  speaking,  with  measured  gentleness,  the 
deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  would  see  the 
East  overcome  evil  with  good.  I  would  behold  the 
teacher  of  the  deeper  truths  vanquish  the  tyrant-spirit 
of  the  modern  age.  That  I  may  make  myself  well 
understood  in  a  matter  which  I  can  say  with  truth  is 
more  vital  to  me  than  my  own  life,  let  me  freely  speak 
to  you,  men  and  brethren,  of  three  things:  the  deeper 
mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ ;  the  qualities  in  modern  civili- 
sation that  blind  men  to  these  mysteries;  the  qualities 
in  Oriental  Consciousness  that  are  divinely  empowered 
to  interpret  them. 

I  deem  it  the  highest  honour  that  life  can  contain  to 
speak  with  freedom  to  your  deliberative  minds  concern- 
ing the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  doing 
so  I  feel  that  your  great  pantheistic  inheritances  qualify 
you  in  an  exceptional  degree  not  only  to  apprehend 
the  spirit  in  which  I  speak,  but  to  carry  my  statement 
on  to  conclusions  more  ultimate  than  those,  which  I,  as 
an  Occidental,  may  have  reached  or  may  be  capable 
of  reaching.  I  have  long  rested  on  the  belief  that  the 
deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ  may  not  be  unfolded 
\  to  the  world  until  East  joins  West  for  their  interpreta- 
•  tion.  Precisely  for  this  reason  I  am  little  surprised 
that,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  East,  regarding  Christ 
merely  as  a  Guru^  a  gifted  teacher  of  the  past,  rejects 
His  Divine  claim.  So  long  as  He  is  conceived  by  the 
Oriental  Consciousness  as  a  teacher  only,  however 
distinguished,  sentiments  of  loyalty  to  other  teachers 
must  inhibit  you  from  acknowledging  Christ  to  be 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       i8l 

supreme.  Why  indeed  should  He  claim  supremacy 
if  but  a  teacher!  You  have  had  great  masters  and 
seers,  a  glorious  train,  extending  back  through  ages. 
Being  dead,  they  yet  speak  to  you.  Into  that  company 
you  are  willing  to  admit  Christ,  for  He  was  a  great 
teacher.  His  wisdom  was  unsearchable,  and  His 
speech  most  gracious.  Some  said  in  their  enthusiasm, 
"Never  man  spake  like  this  man."  But  why  single 
Him  out  from  others,  to  place  on  His  brow  the  chaplet 
of  supremacy  ?  The  objection  seems  to  me  unanswer- 
able, if  Christ  is  a  teacher  only.  Why  crown  a  Semitic 
prophet,  and  leave  the  mighty  Aryans  uncrowned? 
It  has  been  said  that  the  Divinity  of  Christ  must  act 
as  a  bar  to  the  Christianising  of  the  Oriental  world. 
So  it  must  be  while  the  thought  remains  that  He  is  but 
a  prophet  for  Whom  His  disciples  are  trying  to  win  a 
title;  or  so  long  as  His  Divinity  is  grounded  on  any 
narrow  or  local  system  of  theology.  "Pantheism," 
as  Martineau  said,  "is  a  temperament  rather  than  a 
system,"  and  minds  with  that  great  inheritance  must 
move  toward  the  deeper  mysteries  of  the  Christian 
religion  in  their  own  way  and  by  their  own  processes 
of  assimilation,  or  not  at  all.  But  of  nothing  am  I 
more  sure  than  that  the  day  is  coming  when  the  East, 
so  far  from  being  repelled  by  the  Divinity  of  Christ, 
shall  become  the  champion  and  exponent  of  that  Divin- 
ity, recovering  its  meaning  for  the  world.  For  it  is  a 
truth  that,  rightly  conceived,  is  so  enormous  in  its  sug- 
gestions and  implications,  points  to  such  mysteries, 
lifts  to  such  experiences,  that  it  is  supremely  adapted 
to  the  Oriental  Consciousness  and  the  Oriental  Con- 


i82  BARROWS  LECTURES 

sciousness  to  it.  The  West  has  ever  felt  its  power,  and 
pondered  its  meaning.  So  long  as  the  Eastern  influence 
continued  potent  in  the  West,  and  wherever  it  still 
lingers,  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ  have  pre- 
served their  precious  meanings.  But  there  are  certain 
motives  in  the  dominating  civilisations  of  the  West 
that  react  against  those  meanings,  set  them  aside  as 
too  mystical,  too  much  allied  to  the  subjective,  and 
offer  others  in  their  stead  that  combine  more  readily 
with  what  is  called  a  practical  age.  These  substitutions, 
consisting  mainly  in  deifications  of  the  words  of  Jesus, 
with  rationalistic  accounts  of  His  Person,  have  helped 
to  make  the  modern  world  what  it  is.  When  I  turn 
from  these  utilitarian  substitutions,  products  of  a  critical 
externalism,  to  speak  to  an  Eastern  audience  of  the 
deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  feel  delight  mingled 
with  fear :  delight,  in  presenting  to  religious  minds  that 
which  is  the  essence  of  the  religion  of  character;  fear, 
through  the  sense  of  incapacity  to  speak  adequately 
to  such  a  theme.  With  the  Psalmist,  I  cry,  "Such 
knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me ;  it  is  high,  I  cannot 
attain  unto  it.'" 

For  the  purpose  of  illustration,  yet  not  without  hope 
that  the  illustration  is  also  the  fact,  I  shall  assume  that, 
among  the  most  cultivated  minds  assembled  here,  are 
some  that  ask  a  way  of  access  to  these  deeper  mysteries 
of  Jesus  Christ,  saying :  If  He  be  more  than  a  teacher 
of  antiquity,  Who  gathered  disciples,  and  spoke  words 
of  exceeding  wisdom,  how  shall  one  attempt  to  compre- 
hend what  and  who  He  is?      The  answer  must  be 

I  Ps.  139:6. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       183 

threefold.  He  who  would  have  access  to  the  deeper 
mysteries  must  begin  his  approach  in  the  historical  fact: 
the  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ.  From  this  he  must 
advance  into  experience:  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  Christian  Consciousness.  From  this  he  is  pre- 
pared to  advance  into  revelation :  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Revelation  of  the  Heart  of  God.  No 
thoughtful  mind,  travelling  this  noble  threefold  path, 
can  fail  at  least  to  apprehend,  whether  ultimately  it 
accepts  them  or  not,  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  approach  to  knowledge  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ 
begins  in  history.  He  appears  in  the  world  within  a 
measurable  distance  from  the  present  age;  well  within 
the  period  covered  by  scientific  research.  The  place 
of  Christ  in  history  is  less  ancient  than  some  of  the  most 
treasured  religious  inheritances  of  India,  visible  monu- 
ments of  which  exist  at  the  present  moment.  The 
pillars  of  Asoka,  the  magnificent  rock  temples  of  Nassik 
and  Karli  are  more  ancient  than  the  historical  period 
of  Jesus  Christ.'  Notwithstanding  this,  persistent 
efforts  were  made  in  Europe,  soon  after  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  to  undermine  the  historical  reality 
of  Christ  and  to  relegate  Him  to  the  cloudland  of  poetry 
and  myth.  It  became  necessary,  therefore,  to  subject 
the  evidence  to  the  most  rigorous  tests  known  to  science. 
Every  traditional  belief,  every  statement  of  the  New 
Testament  in  favour  of  His  historical  reality  was  passed 
through  the  fires  of  research.     Out  of  the  alembic  came 

^  Cj.  Fergusson,  History  of  Indian  and  Eastern  Architecture  (London, 
Murray,  1876),  pp.  47,  52,  110-22. 


l84  BARROWS  LECTURES 

the  gold  of  fact.  It  is  now  known  that  He  appeared 
at  the  time  alleged.  He  did  His  works,  uttered  His 
teachings,  and,  with  majestic  devotion  to  His  life  pur- 
pose, died  a  public  and  suffering  death.  In  the  belief 
of  His  disciples,  and  upon  their  solemn  and  uncontra- 
dicted testimony.  He  arose  from  the  dead,  and,  after 
making  provision  for  the  diffusion  of  His  message  and 
His  influence  throughout  all  nations,  withdrew  His 
presence  from  sight ;  henceforth  continuing  it  for  ever 
by  means  of  a  spiritual  power,  exerted  inwardly  upon 
the  consciousness  of  men.  I  shall  never  forget  an  after- 
noon in  1902  when  I  drove  from  Benares  to  Sarnath,  and 
stood  in  the  silence  of  the  Deer  Park  beside  the  tope 
that  commemorates  the  Great  Master,  the  Buddha,  who, 
a  thousand  years  before  its  erection,  taught  his  disci- 
ples there.  The  sun  was  setting.  Floods  of  golden  light 
irradiated  the  exquisite  band  of  sculptured  ornament, 
and  shed  calm  glory  upon  the  neighbouring  mounds 
and  ruins.  Through  the  silence,  the  still,  small  voice 
of  an  immortal  past  spoke  in  my  soul;  and  then,  as 
often  before  and  after,  I  measured  the  greatness  of 
your  religious  inheritances.  They  qualify  you,  my 
friends,  as  belief  and  reverence  ever  qualify,  to  stand 
with  me  within  the  sacred  enclosure  of  the  Christian 
Scripture,  while  together  we  think  of  the  life  purpose 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Very  gradual  was  the  manner  in  which 
the  influence  of  the  personal  presence  of  Christ  took 
hold  of  His  immediate  disciples.  It  was  an  influence 
deeper  and  more  potent,  while  less  obvious,  than  that 
produced  by  brilliant  teachings  or  striking  miracles. 
The  disciples  came  slowly  to  realise  that  what  Christ 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       185 

was  in  Himself  was  greater  than  anything  He  taught 
or  did.     A  modern  writer  says: 

We  are  apt  to  depreciate  the  potency  of  Christ's  Personal 
Influence  on  His  disciples,  because  personal  influence  is  so  subtle 
in  its  operation;  because  it  does  not,  like  teaching  and  miracle, 
formally  challenge  a  verdict.  Yet  every  one  knows  that  the  hold 
which  a  moral  leader  has  over  his  followers  is  not  created  simply 
by  the  thrilling  utterances  or  heroisms  of  great  moments.  By 
these,  indeed,  he  first  arrests  and  inspires  them.  But  their  belief 
in  him  only  gains  depth  and  completeness,  if  those  quieter  hours 
which  show  the  real  man  reveal  the  same  spirit  which  shines  so 
brilliantly  at  special  times.  Every  part  of  conduct  adds  its  colour 
to  the  impression.  The  tone  in  which  he  speaks,  his  bearing 
under  suspicion,  his  reserves,  his  silences  are  the  deep  roots  out  of 
which  alone  springs  that  sure  confidence,  which,  as  Burke  says, 
''is  a  plant  of  slow  growth."^ 

He  who,  desiring  knowledge  of  the  Divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  begins  his  approach  in  the  history  of  His  Life 
as  lived  on  earth  finds  that  the  conviction  of  Divinity 
does  not  chiefly  lay  hold  of  the  mind  by  considering 
the  teachings  and  the  miracles  of  the  Lord,  but  by  slowly 
approaching  His  life  purpose.  His  teachings  are  indeed 
utterances  of  perfect  wisdom  and  crystalline  purity. 
They  strike  at  the  centre  of  man's  need.  They  answer 
the  questions  of  the  soul.  They  divide  evil  from  good 
as  with  a  surgeon's  knife.  His  miracles  display  control 
in  the  realms  of  life  and  death,  and,  by  their  tender 
helpfulness,  show  His  amazing  consideration  and  love 
for  man.  But  these  outgoings  of  wisdom  and  power, 
that  appear  on  the  surface  of  the  history  and  first  attract 

I  C/.  Forrest,  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience  (3d  ed.,  Edinburgh, 
1901),  pp.  127,  128. 


l86  BARROWS  LECTURES 

the  eye,  are  less  convincing  than  that  personal  effect 
of  His  own  consciousness  which  emanates  from  His 
Life,  apart  from  word  or  deed ;  which  is  the  life  itself. 
The  Divinity  of  Christ  appears,  in  history,  chiefly  in 
the  purpose  governing  His  life.  Anyone  who  studies 
the  life  of  Christ  as  recorded  in  the  New  Testament 
must  feel  its  perfect  symmetry  and  simplicity.  One 
vast  purpose,  progressively  expressed,  filled  and  con- 
trolled His  mind.  As  a  child  He  felt  it  in  anticipation 
and  said:  ''I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business." 
As  a  sufferer,  dying  on  the  Cross,  He  felt  it  in  consum- 
mation and  cried:  ^'It  is  finished."  It  has  been  said 
of  Him:  "No  other  career  ever  had  so  much  unity,  no 
other  biography  is  so  simple.  Men  in  general  take  up 
scheme  after  scheme,  as  circumstances  suggest  one  or 
another.  But  Christ  formed  one  plan  and  executed 
it."'  The  plan  of  Christ  was  the  royal  plan  of  a  kingly 
mind.  It  was,  in  essence,  a  plan  to  give  happiness  to 
the  world  by  establishing  a'  world-wide  kingdom  of 
righteousness;  "to  create  a  new  society  which  would 
stand  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  God,  and  which  should 
have  a  legislation  different  from  and  higher  than  that 
which  springs  up  in  secular  states."^  In  conceiving 
this  society,  this  kingdom  of  righteousness.  His  purpose 
was  not  exclusive  but  inclusive.  It  was  for  humanity. 
To  be  a  human  being  was  to  be  eligible  for  entrance  into 
this  Kingdom  of  God.  It  was  a  vast  purpose  to  unify 
the  world,  to  gather  together  all  nations  and  kindreds 
and  peoples  into  an  ethical  relationship  of  goodness, 

I  C/.    Sir    J.    R.    Seeley,    Ecce      of    God"    (ed.    Macmillan,    1904). 
Homo,   chap,    iii,    "The    Kingdom  2  Seeley,  op.  cit.y  p.  13. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       187 

peace,  and  love.  Of  this  Kingdom  He  Himself  was  to 
be  the  Head.  His  meek  and  lowly  spirit  felt  no  incon- 
sistency in  making  this  claim.  For  He  knew  Himself 
to  be  a  King  indeed,  yet  not  after  the  pattern  of  an 
earthly  sovereign.  Pride  of  station,  pomp  of  equipage, 
haughty  self-seclusion,  arbitrary  exertion  of  power 
were  abhorrent  to  Him.  He  neither  possessed  nor 
desired  earthly  honour  and  resources.  He  went  through 
the  world  a  lowly  pilgrim.  He  had  not  where  to  lay 
His  head.  Yet  the  consciousness  of  power  was  in  His 
soul,  and  when  He  taught,  it  was  as  one  having  author- 
ity. This  glorious  sense  of  power  He  attributed  to 
His  mystical  oneness  with  the  Eternal  Father,  from 
Whom  He  came,  and  on  Whose  behalf  He  lived  and 
died.  His  throne  was  the  radiant  purpose  in  His  own 
soul.  Surely  it  was  a  throne  more  splendid  than  the 
jewelled  thrones  of  emperors.  From  it  He  looked  out 
on  the  whole  world  and  saw  it  as  one  potential  society 
of  righteous  happiness,  bound  to  Himself  by  harmony 
with  His  spirit.  "Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister, 
and  mother.''  ^  Magnificent  as  is  this  kingly  conception 
of  Jesus  Christ,  it  becomes  yet  more  magnificent  when 
we  consider  the  end,  the  law,  the  life,  the  inspiration, 
and  the  power  of  this  Kingdom.  Its  end  was  liberty, 
intellectual  and  moral,  through  the  power  of  truth. 
"Ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free."^'  He  proposed  no  esoteric  doctrine  to  be  proudly 
held  by  a  few;  He  kept  back  no  secrets  which  man  was 
able  to  receive.     He  wanted  all  men  to  come  to  the 

I  Matt.  12:50.  2john8:32. 


l88  BARROWS  LECTURES 

knowledge  of  the  truth  that  their  minds  might  be  at 
liberty,  in  the  freedom  of  the  sons  of  God.  He  wanted 
men  to  think,  to  know,  to  choose.  But  to  Him  intel- 
lectual liberty  was  not  possible  except  with  moral  liberty : 
the  breaking  of  the  fetters  of  sin;  the  casting  out 
of  devils  of  untruth,  deception,  hypocrisy,  impurity; 
the  cleansing  of  the  soul ;  the  regeneration  of  heart  and 
conscience.  So,  while  the  end  of  His  Kingdom  was 
liberty,  its  law  was  holiness.  This  holiness  was  intrinsic, 
not  ceremonial.  It  was  not  the  washing  of  the  outside 
of  cup  and  platter,  but  purgation  of  the  inmost  life. 
It  was  godlikeness  born  from  above;  a  new  nativity, 
in  the  soul  of  man;  godlike  vision  of  the  difference 
between  evil  and  good;  godlike  detestation  of  unholy 
desire,  purpose,  word,  and  deed;  godlike  delight  in 
purity  and  honour.  "Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect, 
as  your  heavenly  Father  is  perfect."'  Being  godlike, 
this  holiness  was  active  and  altruistic;  not  considering 
perfection  of  character  an  end  in  itself,  but  a  means  of 
usefulness.  He  declared  that  He  had  come  "not  to 
be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister."'  Therefore  the 
life  in  this  Kingdom  must  be  service.  Its  members 
must  live  for  one  another,  bearing  one  another's  burdens 
and  so  fulfilling  the  law  of  Christ.  They  must  learn 
His  great  solicitudes  for  the  wandering  and  the  fallen; 
His  great  compassions  for  them  that  are  ignorant  and 
out  of  the  way;  His  great  forbearance  toward  the  un- 
thankful and  unworthy;  His  great  tenderness  toward 
the  sorrowing  and  desolate;  His  great  guardianship 
of  childhood  and  immaturity.     But  such  a  life  of  service 

»  Matt.  5 :  48.  2  C/.  Matt.  20:28. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       189 

requires  some  overmastering  inspiration.  Men  cannot 
by  natural  impulse  thus  live  out  of  themselves,  in  effort 
often  unrewarded,  for  their  human  brethren.  They 
do  not  instinctively  feel  moved  to  give  time  and  strength 
for  lives  that  may  reject  or  nullify  their  efforts,  and 
even  turn  against  those  that  offer  them.  If  they  are 
to  live  this  life  of  service,  which  is  the  opposite  of  the 
life  of  passive  or  aggressive  selfishness,  they  must  be 
inspired  to  live  it.  Christ  provided  a  deathless  inspira- 
tion, moved  by  which  nothing  has  seemed  too  exhausting 
or  too  degrading  to  be  done  for  others  by  such  as  truly 
have  caught  the  spirit  of  His  Kingdom.  That  motive 
is  love,  enthusiasm  for  humanity,  devotion  to  mankind. 
He  imparted  that  inspiration,  not  by  formal  precept  but 
by  incarnating  Himself  in  the  race  and  living  in  it  and 
for  it  with  passionate,  self-spending  affection.  Those 
who  know  Him  receive  this  inspiration.  They  come 
to  look  upon  mankind  as  through  His  loving  eyes,  to 
judge  mankind  as  through  His  compassionating  judg- 
ment ;  and  thus,  in  their  several  measures,  and  with  a 
love  like  His,  they  follow  in  His  train.  They  feel,  as 
keenly  as  others,  the  ignorance,  insensibility,  vileness, ' 
malevolence,  and  folly  that  appear  too  often  in  human 
lives.  They  know  how,  by  nature,  men  speak  evil  of 
one  another,  and  of  the  race.  But  when  discouraged, 
repulsed,  betrayed,  they  remember  Christ,  and  are 
glad,  with  His  gladness,  to  go  on. 

Of  this  race  [says  one]  Christ  Himself  was  a  Member,  and  to 
this  day  is  it  not  the  best  answer  to  all  blasphemers  of  the  species, 
the  best  consolation  when  our  sense  of  its  degradation  is  keenest, 
that  a  human  brain  was  behind  His  forehead  and  a  human  heart 


IQO  BARROWS  LECTURES 

beating  in  His  breast,  and  that  within  the  whole  creation  of  God 
nothing  more  elevated  or  more  attractive  has  yet  been  found  than 
He?  He  associated  by  preference  with  the  meanest  of  the  race; 
no  contempt  for  them  did  He  ever  express,  no  suspicion  that  they 
might  be  less  dear  than  the  best  and  wisest  to  the  common  Father; 
no  doubt  that  they  were  naturally  capable  of  rising  to  a  moral 
elevation  like  His  own.  An  eternal  glory  has  been  shed  upon  the 
human  race  by  the  love  Christ  bore  to  it.  And  those  who  would 
for  a  moment  know  His  Heart  and  understand  His  Life  must 
begin  by  thinking  of  the  whole  race  of  man  and  of  each  member 
of  the  race,  with  awful  reverence  and  hope.^ 

Such  was  the  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ:  to  be 
this  King  over  this  Kingdom,  to  create,  out  of  the  fulness 
of  love  in  His  soul,  a  new  society  of  mankind,  world- 
wide in  scope,  related  to  God  in  and  through  Himself, 
making  for  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  upon  earth — 
a  Kingdom  having  for  its  end  intellectual  and  moral 
liberty,  through  knowledge  of  truth;  for  its  law,  holi- 
ness of  the  soul;  for  its  life,  service  of  mankind;  for 
its  inspiration,  love  and  enthusiasm  for  humanity. 
By  what  power  did  He  proceed  to  carry  out  His  life 
purpose?  Not  by  the  appeal  to  force.  He  carried 
in  His  hand  no  sword.  He  called  to  His  aid  no  legions 
of  men  or  angels.  He  formed  no  alliance  with  states 
and  governments.  Neither  did  He  appeal  to  miracle. 
That  He  wrought  miracles  is  true,  and  that  some  of  His 
miracles  impressed  men  greatly  is  true ;  yet  on  miracle 
He  never  depended  as  the  power  whereby  to  establish 
His  Kingdom.  His  miracles  were  incidental  acts  of 
love  and  comfort,  or  of  instruction.  When,  in  His 
temptation,  He  was  asked  to  awe  and  win  the  multitudes 

I  C/.  Seeley,  op.  cit.,  pp.  56,  57. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       191 

by  flinging  Himself  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple, 
He  rejected  the  suggestion  with  anger.  When  solicited 
by  the  scribes  to  establish  His  claim  by  a  sign,  He 
refused.  Far  different  was  the  power  on  which  He 
relied.  It  was  the  power  of  self-sacrifice.  He  offered 
all  the  privileges  and  joys  of  His  Kingdom  to  men. 
If  they  accepted  them  and  entered  into  the  liberty  of 
righteousness.  He  was  glad.  If  they  turned  and  as- 
sailed Him,  He  submitted  to  assault  and  injury;  giving 
Himself  through  suffering  for  those  who  would  receive 
Him  on  no  other  terms.  At  last  the  radiant  life  pur- 
pose in  His  soul,  rising  to  vanquish  absolute  rejection 
by  absolute  self-giving,  spoke  triumphantly  through 
death.  By  suffering  all  things.  He  entered  into  His 
Glory.  His  Cross  became  His  throne.  There  He 
conquered,  by  giving  up  all  for  others. 

We  may  not  know,  we  cannot  tell, 

What  pains  He  had  to  bear; 
But  we  beheve  it  was  for  us 

He  hung  and  suffered  there. 

He  died  that  we  might  be  forgiven, 

He  died  to  make  us  good; 
That  we  might  go  at  last  to  heaven, 

Saved  by  His  precious  Blood. 

Oh !  dearly,  dearly  has  He  loved, 

And  we  must  love  Him  too; 
And  trust  in  His  Redeeming  Blood, 

And  try  His  works  to  do.^ 

If,  as  we  have  reason  to  believe,  Christ  was  sorely 
tempted  early  in  His  ministry  to  accomplish  His  life 

Mils.  Cecil  Frances  Alexander. 


192  BARROWS  LECTURES 

purpose  by  the  ordinary  means  open  to  ambition,  what 
complete  victory  over  that  temptation  He  achieved, 
when,  on  the  Cross,  He  gave  up  all  1 

How  characteristic  of  the  Lamb  of  God  was  the  resistance  of 
the  temptation  and  at  the  same  time  how  incomparably  great  the 
self-restraint  involved  in  that  resistance !  One  who  believes  Him- 
self born  for  universal  monarchy,  and  capable  by  His  rule  of  giving 
happiness  to  the  world,  is  entrusted  with  powers  which  seem  to 
afford  the  ready  means  of  attaining  that  supremacy.  By  the  over- 
whelming force  of  visible  miracle  it  is  possible  for  Him  to  establish 
an  absolute  dominion  and  to  give  to  the  race  the  laws  which  may 
make  it  happy.  But  He  deliberately  determines  to  adopt  another 
course;  to  found  His  empire  upon  the  consent  and  not  the  fears  of 
mankind;  to  trust  Himself  with  His  royal  claims  and  His  terrible 
purity  and  superiority  defenceless  among  mankind;  and  however 
bitterly  their  envy  may  persecute  Him,  to  use  His  supernatural 
powers  only  in  doing  them  good.  This  He  actually  did,  and 
evidently  in  pursuance  of  a  fixed  plan.  He  persevered  in  His 
course,  although  politically,  so  to  speak,  it  was  fatal  to  his  position, 
and  though  it  bewildered  His  most  attached  followers.  But  by 
doing  so  He  raised  Himself  to  a  Throne  on  which  He  has  been 
seated  for  nigh  two  thousand  years,  and  gained  an  authority  over 
men  greater  far  than  they  have  allowed  to  any  legislator;  greater 
than  prophecy  had  ever  attributed  to  the  Messiah  Himself.' 

I  said,  a  few  moments  ago,  that  he  who  would  have 
access  to  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ  must 
begin  his  approach  in  the  historical  fact,  the  life  purpose 
of  Christ.  On  this  we  have  dwelt;  with  the  result,  I 
venture  to  hope,  of  seeing  how  it  sets  Him  apart  from 
others.  He  can  no  longer  be  identified  with  the  great 
sages  of  the  world,  for  they,  even  the  most  noble,  com- 
plete themselves  in  their  teachings.     Wisdom  is  their 

I  Cf.  Seeley,  op.  cit.,  p.  6. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       193 

end,  and,  in  the  utterance  of  wisdom,  they  fulfil  their 
lives.  Not  so  with  Him.  His  teachings  are  of  incal- 
culable gravity  and  excellence.  We  know  that  He  was 
a  Teacher  sent  from  God.  The  words  that  He  speaks 
unto  us,  are  spirit  and  life.  Nevertheless  He  does  not, 
like  the  sages,  fulfil  Himself  in  His  teachings.  His  end 
is  not  the  utterance  of  wisdom,  to  leave  behind  Him 
books  of  instruction.  There  is  in  Him,  as  the  very 
soul  of  His  being,  a  life  purpose  that  lifts  Him  and  pro- 
jects Him  far  out  beyond  the  limits  of  spoken  wisdom, 
so  that  He  embraces  the  world,  not  with  a  view  to  in- 
struct it  but  to  change  it,  to  recombine  its  elements,  to 
purge  and  redeem  it  unto  righteousness,  to  govern  and 
guide  it  unto  holy  happiness ;  to  bring  it  out  of  darkness 
into  His  marvellous  light  by  the  power  of  His  marvel- 
lous love.     Christ  is  a  Saviour,  not  a  sage. 

Neither  may  Christ,  in  His  kingly  purpose,  be  classi- 
fied with  any  who  have  worn  earthly  crowns  and  exer- 
cised lordship  over  their  fellow-men.  It  is  inevitable 
among  these  that  they  carry  the  signs  of  distinction. 
The  royalty  of  the  world  has  its  appropriate  modes  of 
expression,  its  natural  separations  from  common  life. 
Splendid  equipment,  rigid  etiquette,  wealth,  courtly 
attendants  are  not  luxuries  only  but  necessities  of  kings. 
By  common  consent  the  world  accords  them  these,  as 
reasonable  perquisites  of  office.  Christ,  claiming  sov- 
ereignty over  all  kings,  and  control  in  all  kingdoms, 
depends  on  and  possesses  none  of  these  things.  No 
palace,  no  fortress,  no  sceptre,  no  courtiers,  no  luxurious 
repose,  no  separation  from  the  common — yet  King  of 
kings.     He  purposed  to  rule  the  world,  yet  through  a 


194  BARROWS  LECTURES 

Kingdom  that  is  not  of  this  world;  a  Kingdom  that 
derives  none  of  its  support  from  armies,  taxes,  alliances, 
or  prestige ;  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  war  or  violence ; 
that  is  founded  in  character,  governed  by  holiness,  in- 
spired by  love.  His  Kingdom  is  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  is  a  King,  but 
from  all  kings,  as  from  all  sages.  He  is  set  apart.  He 
stands  alone;  the  First  and  the  Last;  His  power,  love; 
His  throne,  the  Cross,  as  the  sign  of  his  life  purpose. 
Having  now  come  to  see  the  uniqueness  of  Christ 
and  wherein  that  uniqueness  consists,  even  in  the  life 
of  holiness  and  the  death  of  sacrifice,  he  who  would 
have  access  to  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus  Christ 
must  advance  from  the  study  of  history  into  the  study 
of  experience:  he  must  consider  the  power  of  Christ 
in  the  Christian  Consciousness.  May  I  recall  to  your 
memory  some  words  in  my  first  lecture  about  the  nature 
of  individual  consciousness  ?  Consciousness  is  "  knowl- 
edge, through  testimony  within  oneself,  of  impressions, 
thoughts,  feelings  that  make  up  conscious  existence. 
It  is  the  self-knowing  soul,  holding  counsel  with  itself, 
taking  knowledge  of  itself  inwardly  as  an  entity  sepa- 
rable from  the  whole  outlying  universe."'  In  the  Bri- 
hadaranyaka  Upanishad  the  question  is  proposed: 
^'What  do  you  mean  by  self?"  And  the  answer  is 
given:  *^It  is  the  spirit  behind  the  organs  of  sense  which 
is  essential  knowledge,  and  shines  within  the  heart."* 
It  is  within  the  self -knowing  soul  of  every  man  who 
will  receive  Him,  that  Jesus  Christ,  day  by  day,  year 
by  year,  seeks  to  accomplish  His  life  purpose.     Within 

^  C/.  lecture  in  loc,  p.  15.  2  Brihadaranyaka  Upanishad  4: 3. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       195 

the  circle  of  consciousness  He  enters,  not  as  a  bodily 
appearance,  but  as  a  spiritual  presence.  In  the  his- 
torical and  fleshly  manifesting  of  Christ,  of  which  we 
have  become  cognisant  through  trustworthy  records 
of  Scripture,  we  know  Him  objectively,  as  a  person 
apart  from  ourselves.  We  discover  the  prophetic  and 
kingly  purpose  of  His  Incarnation.  This  is  funda- 
mental knowledge  of  Christ,  inestimable  and  indispen- 
sable. But  it  is  not  the  highest  form  of  knowledge. 
From  knowledge  of  Christ  Historical  we  advance  into 
knowledge  of  Christ  Mystical.  Him  Whom  we  have 
known  objectively,  as  an  adorable  fact,  an  ideal  expres- 
sion of  holy  love,  we  now  discern  subjectively,  as  the 
inseparable  and  inmost  life  of  the  soul;  the  Ground 
of  our  transformed  and  illumined  consciousness,  the 
hidden  Fountain  of  our  being,  springing  up  within  us 
tinto  everlasting  life.  Those  who  attain  this  mystical, 
immediate  consciousness  of  Christ,  as  in  oneness  with 
themselves,  know  by  its  testimony  that  they  have  ad- 
vanced in  spiritual  life  to  a  maturity,  in  comparison 
with  which  the  first  historical  apprehension  of  a  Jesus 
of  the  past  is  the  correct  but  inchoate  knowledge  of 
childhood.  That  knowledge  never  ceases  to  be  pre- 
cious; but  its  distinctive  message  is  absorbed  and 
swallowed  up  in  the  mystical  unfoldings  of  Christian 
experience;  sothat  onemay  say:  Though  I  have  known 
Christ  after  the  flesh  yet  now  henceforth  I  know  Him 
thus  no  more.  For  me  to  live  is  Christ.  Yet  in  this 
absorbing  of  the  Christ  Historical  in  the  profounder 
experiential  knowledge  of  the  Christ  Mystical,  the  sense 
of  identity  between  the  earlier  and  the  later  knowledge 


196  BARROWS  LECTURES 

continually  intensifies.  The  Christ  Mystical,  imme- 
diately discerned  in  the  circle  of  consciousness,  is  the 
continuous,  present,  subjective  manifestation  of  the 
same  Christ  Historical,  and  not  another.  The  marks  of 
His  character,  clearly  defined  upon  the  page  of  history, 
are  not  lost  in  a  vague  spiritual  presence.  The  spiritual 
presence  of  Christ  is  not  a  moving  cloud  of  impersonal 
influence;  it  is  a  fixed,  determined  experience;  fixed 
by  historical  facts.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday, 
and  to-day,  and  for  ever.  The  Christ  Historical  and 
the  Christ  Mystical  are  one.  When  we  consider  His 
character  objectively,  as  embodied  in  His  historical 
life  among  men,  its  moral  splendour  invests  His  human- 
ity with  Godlike  majesty  and  completely  establishes 
an  ideal  of  manhood.  Holy,  guileless,  undefiled,  sepa- 
rate from  sinners.  He  assimilates  all  good,  rejects  all 
evil.  Our  thought  cannot  rise  to  a  higher  ethical  con- 
ception than  that  which  He  embodies.  His  humanity 
is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  perfection.  When  we  know 
Him  mystically,  as  the  Christ  within  us,  the  Ground 
and  Spring  of  our  illumined  consciousness,  all  the  force 
of  His  ideal  manhood  is  brought  to  bear  subjectively 
upon  our  own.  Being  in  Christ  we  are  made  new 
creatures.  Old  corruptions  of  desire  and  purpose 
stand  condemned  in  the  presence  of  new  conceptions 
of  a  potential  manhood,  conformed  in  thought,  word, 
and  deed  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ.  A  new  moral  imperative  is  enthroned  in 
consciousness,  and  summons  every  thought,  desire, 
and  volition  to  submit  to  the  law  of  a  new  manhood 
revealed  in  Christ  Jesus.     In  like  manner  we  may  con- 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       197 

sider  objectively  the  disposition  of  sacrificial  love,  em- 
bodied in  Christ's  historical  life  among  men.  We  may 
note  His  persistent  purpose  to  overcome  others  by 
loving  ministration  rather  than  by  argument  or  force ;  to 
give  Himself  unsparingly  to  whatever  He  was  prompted 
to  do  by  His  affection  for  the  world  and  His  dis- 
cernment of  its  needs;  "to  found  His  empire  on  the 
consent  and  not  the  fears  of  mankind,  and  however 
bitterly  their  envy  may  persecute  Him,  to  use  His  super- 
natural powers  only  in  doing  them  good.'''  We  may 
stand,  where  reverent  observers  for  twenty  centuries 
have  stood,  before  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  lost  in  wonder, 
as  the  suffering  and  shame  of  the  public  crucifixion  give 
occasion  for  more  splendid  demonstrations  of  love 
which  the  most  horrible  of  deaths  cannot  quench.  But 
when  we  know  Him  mystically,  as  the  Christ  within 
us,  the  Ground  and  Spring  of  our  illumined  conscious- 
ness, this  invincible  love  individualises  itself  in  our 
experience,  speaks  to  us  in  terms  of  personal  affection, 
wells  up  into  consciousness  with  tremendous  appeal 
to  our  noblest  instincts.  We  know  that  He  Who  wit- 
nesses mystically  within  us  is  He  Who  has  taken  us 
up,  through  His  Cross  and  Passion,  into  a  higher  life 
in  God,  the  Eternal  Source  and  Home  of  finite  conscious- 
ness. Life  takes  on  new  meaning  as  Christ  Crucified 
becomes  identified  with  us  and  we  with  Him,  Who 
loved  us  and  gave  Himself  up  for  us;  in  union  with 
Whose  death  we  also  may  die  unto  sin. 

I  have  said  that  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Historical 
is  not  the  highest  form  of  knowledge.     From  it  we 

I  Cf.  Seeley,  op.  cit.,  p.  6. 


198  BARROWS  LECTURES 

advance  to  knowledge  of  Christ  Mystical,  immediately 
discerned  in  consciousness,  and,  so  doing,  we  reach  a 
spiritual  life  of  greater  maturity.  The  mysteries  of 
Jesus  Christ  are  not  nature-marvels,  external  signs,  and 
portents.  They  are  mysteries  of  the  Spirit,  inwardly 
apprehended  in  terms  of  ethical  self-realisation.  He 
comes  to  animate  and  control  our  moral  powers;  to 
regulate  our  natural  tendencies,  by  furnishing  us  with 
new  motives;  to  interpret  to  us  the  depths  of  our  own 
being,  the  suggestions  of  our  sub-conscious  life.  He 
comes,  I  say,  to  animate  and  control  our  moral  powers. 
In  northern  countries  animals  are  found  that  pass  into 
a  state  of  torpor  at  the  approach  of  frost  and  remain  in 
winter  sleep,  or  hibernation,  until  the  vivifying  airs  and 
sunshine  of  spring  return.  There  is,  common  to  man, 
a  state  of  the  soul  which  is  moral  hibernation,  a  winter 
sleep  of  conscience.  The  ethical  sense  is  torpid.  Dis- 
tinctions of  right  and  wrong  become  inoperative.  Sin 
awakens  no  remorse;  holiness,  no  zeal.  Conduct 
moves  at  the  bidding  of  inclination,  and  leaves  behind 
its  trail  of  results,  as  ships  cast  over  the  waste  into  the 
sea,  heedless  of  its  character.  All  this  is  changed  when 
Christ  is  known  mystically  within  the  circle  of  conscious- 
ness. With  Him  comes,  not  remote  and  academic 
impulse  from  an  historical  ideal,  but  immediate  resur- 
rection of  the  ethical  sense,  as  power  born  again  within 
us.  Conscience  springs  from  its  winter  sleep,  sensitive 
and  strong.  Love  of  righteousness,  hatred  of  sin 
become  passions  of  the  regenerate  soul.  The  eyes  of 
the  understanding  are  opened.  The  veil  of  illusory 
egotism^ is  rent  in  twain.     The  soul  perceives  its  true 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS      199 

selfhood  as  hid  with  Christ  in  God.  As  one  passed 
out  of  death  into  life  it  says :  It  is  no  longer  I  that  live, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me. ' 

He  comes  also  to  regulate  our  natural  tendencies 
by  furnishing  us  with  new  motives.  Christ  does  not 
make  men  holy  by  dehumanising  them,  but  by  teaching 
them  to  regulate  their  humanity.  He  does  not  require 
men  to  extirpate  natural  tendencies  by  violent  asceticism. 
Sharing  their  humanity,  He  helps  them  to  place  those 
tendencies  under  control  of  the  highest  principles  of 
personal  and  social  righteousness.     It  has  been  said: 

The  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is  not  meant  to  supplant  His 
prior  revelations  of  Himself  in  nature  and  in  man.  It  takes 
account  of  them  and  is  built  upon  them.  No  doubt  it  subordinates 
the  natural  qualities  and  tendencies  to  the  higher  truth  it  reveals. 
But  though  thus  denying  to  them  a  false  independence  and  suprem- 
acy, it  does  not  lessen  but  heighten  their  value,  by  supplying 
them  with  new  motives  and  loftier  aims.^ 

Finally,  He  comes  to  interpret  to  us  the  depths  of 
our  own  being,  the  suggestions  of  our  sub-conscious 
life.  Christ,  mystically  known,  present  within  the 
circle  of  consciousness,  is  the  answer  to  those  vast  and 
shadowy  questions,  those  subtle  approximations  to 
infinity,  those  brief  and  blessed  intimations  of  kinship 
with  God,  that  pass  and  repass  within  the  soul  at  depths 
that  at  once  preclude  expression  and  suggest  certitude. 
Apart  from  Him,  those  solemn  intimations  of  the  soul's 
boundlessness  are  bewildering.  They  issue  in  unquench- 
able thirstings;  in  cries  of  the  soul  to  which  no  response 
comes;    in  the  stretching  out  of  hands  to  which  no 

I  Gal.  2 :  20.  2  Forrest,  op.  cit.,  pp.  288,  289. 


200  BARROWS  LECTURES 

answering  touch  is  given.  But  in  Him,  as  in  another 
and  greater  self,  the  soul  gains  insight  to  its  own  ideal, 
receives  the  answer  to  its  own  questions,  is  made  com- 
plete; and,  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of  the  Lord, 
is  changed  into  the  same  image.  Such  is  the  power 
of  Christ  in  the  Christian  Consciousness,  when  one 
advances  from  knowledge  of  Christ  Historical  into 
knowledge  of  Christ  Mystical. 

There  remains  one  further  step  to  be  taken  by  him 
who  would  have  access  to  the  deeper  mysteries  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Having  begun  in  the  historical  fact,  the  life 
purpose  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  having  advanced  into  the 
region  of  experience,  there  learning  the  power  of  Christ 
in  the  Christian  Consciousness,  he  is  prepared  for  the 
final  and  distinctive  truth  of  the  Christian  religion: 
the  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Revelation  of  the 
Heart  of  God.  To  that  final  truth  I  can  well  conceive 
the  Oriental  Consciousness  returning  as  to  a  congenial 
resting-place,  an  inheritance  alienated  for  generations; 
and  now,  by  the  sure  reversion  of  time,  brought  back 
to  those  capable  of  restoring  its  pristine  grandeur.  In 
closing  the  preceding  lecture  I  spoke  of  those  Pales- 
tinian Orientals  on  whom  rested  the  immediate  power 
of  Christ's  presence  at  the  time  of  His  historical  mani- 
festation.    Permit  me  to  recall  the  words  then  spoken : 

The  reflective  powers  of  their  minds  were  roused;  their  hearts 
began  to  burn  within  them.  They  recalled  His  Words  and  the 
spirit  of  His  life;  they  comprehended  His  purpose,  and  perceived 
that  it  was  universal.  They  knew  that  He  was  a  prophet,  but  not 
like  any  other  prophet,  for  in  Him  wisdom  found  its  source.  They 
knew  that  He  was  great,  but  not  with  the  mere  greatness  of  men, 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       201 

for  men  centre  their  greatness  in  themselves,  and  His  seemed'to  go 
forth  from  Himself  and  be  lost  in  sacrifice  upon  the  world.  Then 
they  recalled  the  philosophic  ideals  of  a  Wisdom,  an  intelligible 
Word,  coming  out  from  the  abyss  of  the  Unknowable,  to  interpret 
the  secrets  of  the  Divine  intelligence,  to  be  a  Mediator  between  theL_ 
Eternal  and  the  ephemeral,  the  sum  of  the  thoughts  of  God,  the 
idea  of  ideas.  ^ 

From  distant  Oriental  sources  these  intimations 
had  entered  and  filled  the  Greek  consciousness,  corrob- 
orating impressions  already  there.  In  the  Rig  Veda  is  a 
whole  hymn  addressed  and  devoted  to  the  Word — the 
Logos.  In  the  Mahdbhdrata  we  read:  "The  Eternal 
Word,  without  beginning,  without  end,  was  uttered 
by  the  Self  existent."^  To  those  Orientals  who  came 
under  the  immediate  power  of  Christ  it  seemed  that 
these  impressions  and  hopes  of  the  ancient  East  were 
corrected  and  completed  in  Him.  Therefore  these 
majestic  souls  discerned  His  meaning  and  His  nature. 
For  them  He  was  the  loving  Spirit  of  the  Lord  that 
filleth  all  the  earth,  the  Brightness  of  the  Everlasting 
Light,  the  Unspotted  Mirror  of  the  Power  of  God, 
the  Image  of  His  Goodness,  the  Mediator,  the  Heavenly 
Man,  the  Word  that  was  in  the  beginning  with  God, 
that  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  men,  that  men 
might  behold  His  glory,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  It 
was  a  wondrous  interpretation,  rich  with  the  mystical 
spirit  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness.  Time  has  but 
confirmed  this  interpretation.  Christ  Mystical,  enter- 
ing the  circle  of  consciousness,  has  corroborated  the 

1  Cf.  Lecture  V,  p.  167.  Herbert  Baynes,  M.R.A.S.,  Royal 

2  Mahdbhdrata  8.  533.    Cf.  article       Asiatic    Society's     Journal,     April, 
on  the  "History  of  the  Logos,"  by       1906,  pp.  373-85. 


202  BARROWS  LECTURES 

first  impression  produced  by  Christ  Historical.  We 
know  that  the  life  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ  answers  and 
fulfils  the  highest  aspiration  in  the  moral  consciousness 
of  humanity;  that  we  cannot  feel  the  absolute  value 
of  good  nor  recognise  its  authority  in  higher  senses 
than  appear  in  Christ.  From  this  we  conclude  that  He 
is  the  Outspeaking  Voice  from  the  shoreless,  soundless 
depths  of  Infinite  Being,  confirming  the  goodness  of 
holy  love  as  the  inner  Essence  of  the  Heart  of  God. 
This  is  the  Divinity  of  Christ  expressed  through  the 
words  and  acts  of  His  human  personality;  not  a  mechan- 
ical or  local  divinity  existing  by  the  side  of,  yet  apart 
from,  our  human  nature;  but  a  Divine  Nature  that 
blends  and  identifies  itself  with  the  thoughts,  feelings, 
volitions  of  human  individuality. '  Herein  is  the  gospel 
of  the  higher  Christian  monism,  the  gospel  of  .the  one- 
ness of  man  with  God.  This  Christ,  Whom  we  discern 
in  the  circle  of  consciousness  as  so  absolutely  one  with 
us  that  we  are  "members  of  His  body,"  is  none  other 
than  the  very  Word  of  the  Infinite,  mediating  to  us, 
on  the  ethical  side,  the  truth  of  our  oneness  with  God 
and  the  implications  contained  in  that  truth,  even  as, 
on  the  intellectual  side,  the  same  truth  of  man's  oneness 
with  God  has  long  been  mediated  to  the  higher  religious 
thinking  of  the  East,  through  its  philosophy  and  meta- 
physics. Christ,  as  the  revelation  of  the  Heart  of  God, 
speaks  to  us  supremely  through  His  Cross  and  Passion. 
There  pain  and  sacrifice  appear  in  a  new  light.  No 
longer  are  they  marks  of  weakness  and  defeat,  no  longer 
pitiable  evils  bom  in  the  travail  of  a  groaning  creation, 

I  C/.  John  Caird,  Fundamental  Ideas,  Vol.  I,  pp.  14,  15. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       203 

but  disclosures  of  the  character  of  the  Eternal,  expres- 
sions of  love's  holiest  purpose,  to  save  others  by  giving 
itself.  The  anguish  of  Christ  upon  the  Cross  no  longer 
is  mistaken  by  us  for  the  torture  of  the  vanquished.  It 
is  the  lonely  ecstasy  of  the  Divine  Sufferer,  Whose  love 
demands  pain  as  the  only  available  language  through 
which  to  make  His  purpose  understood.  How  splendid 
is  the  loneliness  of  that  sacrificial  life  when  we  recognise 
in  it  the  revelation  of  God  1  Not  expecting,  not  demand- 
ing, not  receiving  full  response,  yet  still  finding  its  joy, 
and  the  fulfilment  of  its  deepest  self-realisation,  in  the 
boundless  giving  forth  of  itself  in  love.  Reflections 
of  this  spirit  we  have  seen  in  Christly  souls,  whose  lives, 
animated  by  the  same  sacrificial  purpose,  have  taken  on 
a  Godlike  dignity,  gravity,  tenderness.  But  in  Christ 
we  rise,  through  His  crucified  humanity,  into  the  region 
of  the  Infinite.  We  touch  the  Heart  of  God,  the  foun- 
tain of  holy  love,  out  of  which  all  holy  love  in  us  has 
emerged  as  the  secondary  and  responsive  image  of  Him- 
self. Well  may  I  quote  at  this  point  the  words  of  Caird 
of  Glasgow,  which,  were  they  spoken  here  in  India, 
might  not  unworthily  be  the  words  of  an  Oriental  seer : 

Can  we  think,  then,  of  this  finite  world  as  constituting,  for 
infinite  as  for  finite  intelligence,  the  medium  of  its  self-realisation  ? 
Have  we  here  that  second  self  of  infinitude,  in  the  knowledge  of 
which  the  riches  of  the  Divine  nature,  its  boundless  capacities,  are 
unfolded  ?  There  is  a  sense  in  which  this  is  true.  God  reveals 
Himself  in  nature  and  in  the  finite  spirits  He  has  made  in  His  own 
Image.  The  capacity  of  love  in  the  heart  of  God  may  be  said  to 
find  a  new  channel  for  its  outflow  in  every  human  soul;  and  in  the 
responsive  love  which  that  love  awakens  there  is  something  which 
we  can  think  of  as  adding  a  new  sweetness  and  joy  to  the  very 


204  BARROWS  LECTURES 

blessedness  of  the  Infinite.  Nay,  seeing  that  love  reaches  and  can 
only  reach  its  highest  expression  in  suffering  and  sacrifice,  and  that 
the  richest,  purest  blessedness  is  that  which  comes  through  pain 
and  sorrow,  can  it  be  wrong  to  ascribe  to  God  a  capacity  of  self- 
sacrifice,  a  giving  up  of  Himself,  a  going  forth  of  His  Own  Being 
for  the  redemption  of  the  world  from  sin  and  sorrow  ?^ 

Gentlemen  of  the  East:  It  remains  for  me  to  close 
this  course  of  lectures.  I  do  so  with  regret  for  myself 
on  withdrawing  from  this  sweet  association  with  your 
minds,  and  with  gratitude  to  you  for  your  sustaining 
and  inspiring  attention.  I  trust  that  I  am  not  guilty 
of  presumption  in  attributing  your  close  following  of 
my  remarks,  not  exclusively  to  your  distinguished  and 
gracious  courtesy  toward  a  guest,  but  in  part  also  to 
your  interested  consideration  of  the  matters  which  have 
been  under  discussion.  I  have  presented  what  may 
be  described  as  the  Oriental  aspects  of  the  Christian 
religion,  namely,  those  that  involve  the  mystical  and 
subjective  relations  between  God  and  the  soul,  and 
that  reach  their  highest  perfection  wherever  the  Divinity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  Word,  the  Logos,  of  the  Infinite, 
is  most  profoundly  entertained  within  the  circle  of  con- 
sciousness. As  a  student  of  religion  I  observe  that 
certain  civilisations  lend  themselves  and  others  do  not 
lend  themselves  to  these  aspects  of  Christianity.  The 
civilisations  of  the  West  have  many  noble  qualities  and 
are  contributing  indispensable  elements  to  the  religious 
development  of  the  world.  They  are  great  in  applica- 
tions of  religion  to  practical  affairs,  in  nurture  of  reli- 
gious  institutions,  in   recovery  of   historic   doctrines, 

I  John  Caird,  Fundamental  Ideas,  Vol.  I,  p.  73. 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       205 

methods,  records,  in  appreciations  of  Christ  as  a  teacher, 
in  attempts  to  incorporate  His  ethical  ideals  into  modern 
life.  But  the  civilisations  of  the  West  are  deficient  in 
the  theory  of  religion,  and,  more  especially,  in  the. 
metaphysic  of  life  that  lies  back  of  religion  and  involves 
the  fundamental  questions  of  Being.  More  and  more 
those  civilisations  are  surrendering  themselves  to  a  pas- 
sion for  progress,  which,  being  analysed,  is  found  to 
signify  increased  efficiency  in  methods  of  living,  better- 
ment of  the  world  as  a  safe  and  convenient  dwelling- 
place  for  men,  improvement  of  the  human  stock  in  com- 
ing generations,  custodianship  of  the  earth  by  strong 
races.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  question  the  value  of 
these  ideas,  if  properly  subordinated  to  an  adequate 
metaphysic  of  life,  and  grounded  in  discriminating 
theory  of  Absolute  Being  and  the  unity  of  the  race  in 
God.  No  doubt  it  may  be  the  will  of  God  that  Western 
races  shall  be  the  world's  reformers,  and  the  world's 
educators  in  the  art  of  living.  Nor  do  I  for  a  moment 
forget  the  peril  of  over-concentration  upon  a  metaphysic 
of  life,  and  a  theory  of  Ultimate  Being.  ^The  life  of 
pure  thought  may  disqualify  for  the  life  of  action. 
Speculative  pursuit  of  the  ideal  may  make  the  practical 
and  the  real  repellant,  may  produce  timidity  of  soul, 
paralysis  of  the  will,  irresolution;  may  relegate  men 
and  even  nations  to  the  sphere  of  inefiiciency  and  back- 
wardness; always  preparing,  never  accomplishing. 
But  the  genius  of  Western  civilisation  tends  to  the 
opposite  extreme.  Zeal  for  the  practical  aspects  of 
religion  increases  because  of  their  obvious  relations  to 
progress;    but  interest  and  faith  alike  decline  in  the 


2o6  BARROWS  LECTURES 

deep  mysteries  of  Godliness,  the  profound  relations 
of  the  finite  soul  of  humanity  to  the  Ultimate  Ground 
of  Being.  The  improved  future  of  the  world  absorbs 
the  attention  of  the  West.  Meanwhile  it  loses  touch 
with  great  inheritances  of  the  spirit,  and  sacrifices  the 
ancient  metaphysic  of  the  manifested  Godhead  in  Christ 
to  the  strenuous  dynamic  of  modern  utilitarianism. 
In  other  words:  the  Oriental  aspects  of  the  Christian 
religion  are  being  overlooked  by  the  West  in  its  prac- 
tical ambition  to  reform  and  educate  the  world.  This 
is  a  calamity,  as  I  pointed  out  in  opening  this  lecture. 
It  is  a  situation  that  feeds  instincts  of  aggression,  author- 
ity, pride,  externalism,  already  more  than  sufficiently 
developed  in  the  Western  world ;  that  depreciates  those 
deeper  truths  and  values  of  the  Christian  religion  which 
subdue  worldly  pride,  correct  cruel  and  intolerant 
ambition,  restrain  worship  of  the  visible,  and  teach 
men  and  nations  gentleness,  patience,  sympathy,  self- 
sacrifice.  At  this  juncture  one  thing  is  needed  above 
all  else  for  the  religious  development  of  the  human  race : 
the  influence  of  the  Oriental  Consciousness  for  the 
rein terpretat ion  of  Christianity  to  the  modern  world. 
In  the  diversity  of  His  gifts,  a  good  God  has  endowed 
the  East  with  certain  sublime  traits,  which,  in  the  first 
lecture  of  this  course,  I  attempted  to  describe :  the  Con- 
templative Life ;  the  Presence  of  the  Unseen ;  the  Aspi- 
ration for  Ultimate  Being;  Reverence  for  the  Sanctions 
of  the  Past.  To  attribute  these  to  you  is  no  flattery, 
for  by  the  grace  of  God  you  are  what  you  are.  To 
suggest  the  service  which,  by  the  consecration  of  these 
traits  to  Christ,  you  can  render  to  the  world  is  no  pre- 


MINISTRY  OF  ORIENTAL  CONSCIOUSNESS       207 

sumption,  for  we  are  members  one  of  the  other  and  have 
a  right  to  summon  one  another  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
mon good. 

I  approach  you,  therefore,  at  this  last  moment,  with 
frankness  and  fearlessness.  We  stand  on  the  border 
of  a  new  age,  when  great  reconstructions  in  world 
relations  are  imminent.  We,  who  are  now  of  mature 
age,  may  not  live  to  witness  their  fulfilment,  but  our 
children  and  our  children's  children  shall  see  them. 
In  those  reconstructions  the  initiative  of  the  East  shall 
be  felt  in  ways  undreamed  of  by  our  fathers.  The 
East  shall  come  to  its  own  again  and  speak  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  world.  Time,  the  great  restorer  of  post- 
poned inheritances,  the  great  adjuster  of  equities,  shall 
summon  the  East  not  to  the  recrudescence  of  old  con- 
flicts but  to  new  rivalries  of  the  mind  and  of  the  spirit. 
The  day  of  her  visitation,  the  hour  of  her  opportunity, 
shall  come  from  God.  Shall  she  know  that  day  and 
be  ready  for  that  hour  ?  The  answer  to  that  question 
is  bound  up  in  another:  Shall  the  Oriental  Conscious- 
ness place  its  sublime  qualities  at  the  service  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  become  unto  the  twentieth  century  what 
she  was  unto  the  first,  a  prophet  of  the  Highest  ?  The 
Oriental  Consciousness  has  the  gifts  that  the  world 
needs  to  offset  its  strenuous  externalism  and  guide  it 
back  to  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High.  The  Con- 
templative Life,  the  Presence  of  the  Unseen,  the  Aspira- 
tion for  Ultimate  Being,  Reverence  for  the  Sanctions 
of  the  Past  are  the  Four  Gospels  with  which  a  Christian 
East  may  re-evangelise  the  West;  giving  back  to  it  the 
spirit  of  the  first  days;  co-operating  with  it  to  lead  the 


2o8  BARROWS  LECTURES 

world  out  of  its  confusion,  grossness,  and  sin,  into  the 
peace  and  purity  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Gentlemen  and  friends:  My  message  is  delivered. 
Faulty  and  feeble  though  it  be,  it  is  yet  the  word  of  one 
who  loves  India  as  few  Occidentals  have  loved  her.  It 
may  be  that  never  again  I  shall  visit  this  land.  In  the 
course  of  time  I  shall  pass  from  the  earth  into  that 
Unseen,  upon  which  in  common  we  love  to  meditate. 
But  were  I  to  return  from  some  other  world  to  visit 
you,  my  counsel  and  exhortation  would  be  unchanged : 
Receive  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Word — the  Logos  of  the 
Infinite — ^Who  reveals  in  sacrifice  the  Heart  of  God. 
Honour  Him  indeed  as  a  Sage,  Who  comes  not  to  destroy 
but  to  fulfil  your  traditional  aspirations.  But  do  more 
than  that:  Worship  Him  as  a  Saviour  Who  enters  the 
circle  of  consciousness  to  make  all  things  new,  purging 
away  the  lusts  of  sin.  Then  go  forth  as  His  prophets 
and  make  Him  known  Eastward  and  Westward,  dedi- 
cating your  splendid  gifts  to  Him  for  the  world's  sake, 
until  His  Kingdom  come  and  His  Will  be  done,  in  earth 
as  it  is  in  Heaven ! 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  50  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


MAY    3   1934 


tm  li 


?Shn'59!B 


p>irr^p>  i:C) 


JAM  U  1959 


m  1  i: 


^^ 


REC'U  LO 


4m 


3  72-1  PN\6  Q 


8E»iTOWM4. 


won  1 19% 


U.  C.  BEBtCgLgy 


LD2I-100m-7.'33 


^Trv 


f„jj^ 


VC  29875 


190779 


/ 


